The Wrinkles of the Road
by Beeezie
Summary: Okay, so maybe Scorpius is right, and my job does land me in St. Mungo's too often. But it's fun, and besides, that's what Healer boyfriends are for, right?
1. A Weasley Family Saturday

_Note: This is the sequel to my story Curiosity Is Not a Sin, but it shouldn't be necessary for you to have read that to understand this._

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Rose never would have admitted it to anyone except her boyfriend and _maybe_ her cousin Albus, but family Saturdays at the Burrow were really one of her favourite ways to spend her time. She hadn't properly appreciated them when she was younger, but now that they were significantly less frequent, she was grateful for them. She rarely got to see most of her aunts and uncles outside of them, and she often found it difficult to coordinate her schedule with that of most of her cousins, even the ones she considered herself close to.

She saw Albus on a regular basis because he was Albus. She saw Lucy because they shared a flat on the outskirts of Northern London. And she saw Victoire and James at work.

And often, for weeks at a time, that was it. Lily was still at Hogwarts, along with Rose's brother Hugo. Roxanne was busy with her budding Quidditch career, Fred was working to expand the joke shop, and Dominique was simply too busy.

And she rarely saw the others outside of family gatherings at all.

Even when she was just sitting alone by the window in her grandparents' living room, watching Fred bewitch snowballs to pelt Molly in the back of the head no matter what direction she was looking in, there was a sense of togetherness that she could never seem to find anywhere else.

There was just something about being in her grandparents' house that made any other problems she had melt away.

"Hey." She looked up just as Albus dropped onto the window seat across from her. His nose was still red from being outside, and there were flakes of snow clinging to his dark red hair. "Watching Fred?" She nodded, and he grinned broadly. "She's going to hex him to next Friday soon."

"I don't doubt it." She cocked her head to the side. "How have you been? I haven't seen you much in the last couple weeks."

His smile faded, and he slouched against the wall behind him. "The Aurors decided I was ready to move onto occlumency training, and it's a nightmare. I'm rubbish at it, and sometimes they have Bridget practise her legilimency on _me._" He made a disgusted face, and Rose refrained from pointing out that wanting to keep his not-quite-girlfriend out of his mind should be good incentive; she knew Albus didn't work that way. "That's always _fun._ Then after work, it's always, 'Al, you never told me that-'" He broke off and sighed. "Anyway. That's why you haven't seen me. How's the D.C.B.?"

She shrugged. "Oh, you know. I've got a couple of nicks and bruises, but they've still got me on a tight leash - they haven't let me near anything more interesting than a grindylow." He didn't look very sympathetic, and she supposed she couldn't blame him; when she'd joined the Dangerous Creatures Bureau, they'd told her she'd have four months of training, and that once she'd completed that, they would ease her into real field work. They'd kept their word; it was January, and she suspected they'd boost her up to a real XXXX creature in a matter of weeks.

Albus, on the other hand, had to go through another two and a half years of training to be a fully-fledged Auror, and he couldn't expect to go into the field until his third year of training.

He was beginning to look a little annoyed, so Rose directed her gaze across the room and changed the subject. "Remember when those two hated each other?" she asked.

Her cousin followed her line of vision to where his brother James was sitting with her boyfriend. From the animated hand gestures and occasional loud exclamations, they had to be talking about either Quidditch or Healing. Ever since his first trip to St. Mungo's since joining the D.C.B. the year before, James had developed a keen interest in Healing.

"Well, I don't have the patience to _do_ it," he'd said when she teased him about quitting the Ministry and starting in on Healer training instead. "I just think it's interesting. I mean, they can really repair the human body. It makes me a lot less nervous about being a bit reckless!"

Given how little concern James had _ever_ showed for his safety, Rose was still a bit worried about what "a lot less nervous" meant.

Albus snorted as he slouched against the wall and rested his feet on her seat. "Yeah, well, _you_ used to hate him, too."

Rose made a face. "Shut up." Just as she was about to look away from them, Scorpius glanced up. When he saw her eyes on him, he grinned at her. She smiled back and blew him a kiss, and his grin turned into a smirk as he looked back at James.

"You know, I thought he'd get over being pleased with himself for going out with you eventually," Albus remarked offhandedly. She glanced over at him; he was looking out the window again. Molly had finally tired of Fred's antics and had her wand out, and Fred was dodging her jinxes with only limited success. One of his feet had swelled to be about as big as a pumpkin, and his hair was bright purple. "It's been more than three years, though, and he still hasn't really gotten over it."

"Well, I'm pretty great." Rose put her feet up next to him. "Can you blame him?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "Yes. Yes, I can. Unlike my best friend, I can see how obnoxious you are."

"Oh, he does, don't worry." Rose glanced back out the window. Fred had several bright spots on his cheek, but he appeared to have rallied; Molly was now struggling to stop laughing long enough to perform to countercharm. "He just forgives me for it."

"How've things been between you and Scorpius?" Albus asked. "I've barely talked to him, either. I'm turning into a hermit."

Rose suspected that this might have at least as much to do with his girl issues as his training, but she'd long since learned not to press Albus too much on the topic. He'd talk when he was ready to.

"Good. Or, I think it is, anyway. It's hard to be sure with him."

Albus sighed. "He's just a little worried about you starting to do fieldwork. He knows how often D.C.B. members are in and out of St. Mungo's, and it's hard for him to think about his boss interrupting his day to tell him that you've been carted in there."

Rose had been trying very hard not to think about that; it was a conversation that both she and Scorpius had been pointedly avoiding, though she knew that as a Healer trainee it was definitely starting to weigh on him. There wasn't really much she could do about it, though, other than try to keep herself out of St. Mungo's in the first place.

"I know." She winked at Albus. "But I make it worth his while."

Albus recoiled. "Ew." He changed the subject, and inwardly, she heaved a sigh of relief that she'd managed to deflect the conversation for a little longer.

Rose was good at avoiding things she didn't want to deal with. According to Albus, it would catch up with her eventually, but she doubted that: it was her experience that when you avoided problems for long enough, they just went away.

Dinner was predictably good; she had the chance to catch up with Louis, who she'd always gotten on quite well with but hadn't really had the opportunity to talk to much lately. Scorpius seemed to have retreated back to Albus, which she supposed wasn't very surprising; this was the first Weasley family Saturday he'd been to, and he was clearly still a little uncomfortable. The fact that he'd gravitated toward James earlier in the day as a familiar presence was progress in and of itself - they'd gotten along better in Hogwarts after Rose had started going out with Scorpius, but they'd certainly never been what she would call close.

James was clearly preferable compared to the rest of her cousins, however, most of whom Scorpius didn't know very well at all.

By the time they finished dinner, she could tell by the way he was fidgeting that he'd clearly had enough. As Teddy and her grandmother took charge of the dishes and everyone else began to file back into the living room, she grabbed his hand and said in an undertone, "Do you want to get going?" The relief was clear on his face, and she kissed his cheek. "Just let me say goodbye."

"Goodbye" took about twenty minutes, and by the time they stepped out of the house, the sky had grown dark.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" she asked, looking up at the sky.

"Mm." He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers. It still felt a little strange - he'd been about her height for most of their relationship, but toward the end of their seventh year he'd had an unexpected growth spurt that left him about sixteen centimetres taller than she was. "Do you want to go home or come back to my place?"

She felt a smile spread across her face. "You're not tired of the Weasley clan yet?"

"Not you." He kissed the top of her head. "So?"

Rose twisted around and stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his. "I'd love to go to your place."

In the dim light cast by the glow from the windows, she could see a sparkle in Scorpius's grey eyes. "Oh, good." He took her hand and turned on his heel, and when she opened her eyes, they were standing in front of the door to his flat.

He let go of her hand to pull out his wand. He tapped the lock and muttered something under his breath, and after a moment, they heard the deadbolt sliding back. He pushed the door open and she followed him in, pushing it closed behind her. The locks reengaged as they made their way into the living room, where he collapsed onto his couch.

She paused in the doorway to watch him. The light in the hallway had flickered on when they'd walked in, and he pointed his wand at an orb on the wall before tossing it onto the table. The orb began to glow, and he looked over at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She smiled when he shifted uncomfortably. "What? I'm not allowed to admire my boyfriend?"

He snorted. "Admire me from over here." He patted the cushion next to him. "If you're over there, I can't touch you." She raised her eyebrows, and he made a face. "You know what I mean."

She made her way across the room and settled next to him. "Thanks for coming," she said as she snuggled up to him and put her head on his chest.

He wrapped an arm around her and began to stroke her hair gently. "It was fun. I mean, I felt a little awkward, but it was still fun." Rose closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. Just as she was beginning to doze off, he cleared his throat. "Hey, Rose?"

"Mm?"

He hesitated for moment. "Would you go to something like that with my family?"

"Sure," she said sleepily. Her eyes were starting to drift shut, and she had no desire to move. "I like the Greengrasses."

He didn't respond for a minute, and her contentedness started to slip away. "Not my mum's family," he said finally. "My dad's."

She jerked back to stare at him. He looked serious, which she supposed made some sense - it was hardly something to joke about. "Your dad doesn't have much family," she said quickly, though from the way his jaw was set, she knew he wouldn't let her get away with the deflection.

Not this time.

"That's not the point."

She inched back from him a little and drew her knees up to her chest. "Your grandfather was a Death Eater," she hissed.

"So was my father."

Rose snorted. "And as you've pointed out about fifty times in the last few years, that's different."

And it was different. Rose had met Scorpius's parents. To her slight surprise, she'd even found that she liked Scorpius's parents. His mother was a bit more friendly and his father more reticent, but even so, she'd never felt anything but welcome by them.

But his grandparents were different.

She could see how Scorpius's father could have changed. He was still in school when You-Know-Who took over, and at least as far as she knew, he'd never actually done anything _really_ bad.

Scorpius's grandfather, on the other hand, had definitely done a lot of terrible things in the wars. Rose was fairly certain he'd murdered people. The only reason he wasn't in Azkaban was that Scorpius's grandmother had helped the Order in the Battle of Hogwarts. He might well be a decent grandfather to his pureblood grandson, but somehow she had a feeling that he'd be less decent to the halfblood.

"I know," Scorpius said. "But he's still my grandfather."

Rose snorted. "Right. And I'm sure he's so eager to meet me. I'm diluting his family's blood, remember?"

Scorpius let his head fall back back to rest on the couch. "Rose, I wouldn't-" She raised her eyebrows when he glanced over at her, and he sighed. "Look, if he said anything to you, we'd leave and I wouldn't speak to him again."

She didn't challenge him on that. She didn't doubt that what he was saying was true.

But it also wasn't the point, and in some ways, the idea that the meeting could destroy Scorpius's relationship with his grandfather made her want to meet the man even less.

"I can't." His eyes met hers, and despite the hurt look in his eyes, she didn't falter. "Scorpius, I can't."

He closed his eyes, and she felt a quick stab of guilt. "How about just my grandmother?" She could barely hear his voice.

"Your grandmother?"

He lifted his head and looked at her. "Yeah. Just my grandmother." She hesitated. "We can meet her for lunch somewhere. You won't even have to go to the manor."

"I don't know."

Scorpius clearly saw her ambivalence as the perfect opening, because he added quickly, "Rose, please. Just once. If it doesn't go well, I won't bring it up again."

She considered him. "Liar," she said after a moment.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he pushed his blonde hair back from his face. "Fine. I'll give it at least six months." His expression grew serious again. "And if she brings up your blood, I won't ever mention it again. But I know she won't."

"Why not?"

"Because my grandmother loves me, and she's not an idiot. She knows how pissed off I'd be if she did, and anyway, she's been pushing to meet you for months. She'll make an effort."

Rose sighed and looked away from him. "I'll think about it."

He slung his legs off the couch and scooted over to put his arm around her shoulders. "Thank you." He kissed her forehead.

"I didn't say yes," she reminded him as he began to run his fingers through her hair.

"I know," he murmured. He put his other hand underneath her chin, and she allowed him to lift her head. "I love you."

Rose felt her trepidation begin to melt away. "I love you, too." She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to pull her into his lap. "You're a good boyfriend," she said, brushing her lips against his.

He smiled. "I know," he repeated. His grip on her tightened, and he leaned down to kiss her. When they broke away for air, he added, "You're not so bad yourself."

She snorted and rested her head on his chest again. "Why is it so important to you?" she asked.

He didn't have to ask what she meant. "Because they're my family. I know they've done a lot of awful things, but they're still my family." When she didn't respond, he pointed out, "I've met _all_ of your family. I've even met your Muggle grandparents."

"My grandparents didn't do _anything_-"

"I didn't say that they did." His tone was still calm. "My point is just that I've made the effort, and everyone in your family hasn't exactly made me feel welcome."

He didn't mention Roxanne by name, but Rose knew that he was thinking of her in particular. Roxanne had many positive traits, and Rose loved her dearly, but it was true that she still treated Scorpius with a suspicion that wasn't really warranted or fair. Rose suspected that it mostly had to do with the fact that Scorpius had been in Slytherin in school; Roxanne had always disliked all Slytherins on principle, and despite Scorpius's longstanding friendship with Albus and his relationship with Rose, Roxanne couldn't quite get over her suspicion.

Rose sighed. "I'll think about it," she said again. "I just... Scorpius, do you know what he _did?_ He went after people like my family - hell, he probably went after my family - and did..." She trailed off. "Maybe Roxanne's been a bit of a jerk, but it doesn't compare."

"I know." He sighed, too. "I _know._ Don't you think I had my own little crisis when I found out about some of the terrible things he's done?" Rose had actually never given it much thought - she tried to avoid thinking about Scorpius's paternal grandparents when she could at all help it - but she wasn't surprised. Scorpius had never been big on blood purity. "That's why I haven't pushed it," he added. "But they're still... I just..."

"I'll think about it," she repeated. "I promise."

He exhaled heavily. "Thank you."

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_A/N: Hey! I've largely left ff dot net for harrypotterfanfiction dot com, and you can find all of my stories, including an improved version of 'Curiosity Is Not a Sin' and many fics I haven't posted here at all there under the same username. However, ff dot net was so great and supportive when I was first starting out writing my Rose/Scorpius that when I started the sequel, I felt like I really had to post it here as well as at hpff._

_I hope you liked the first chapter. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have, even if it's as simple as 'I love this chapter.' :P I'm a bit worried that I haven't given enough background and that this might be a bit confusing. Please tell me if that's the case so I can fix it!_

_I'll have the next chapter up soon; thank you so much for reading. :)_


	2. Scorpius's Request

By the time Rose got home the next day, it was already early afternoon. To her surprise, however, Lucy was just sitting down to a very late breakfast.

"Did you just get up?" Rose called as she shed her coat, gloves, and scarf at the door. She could just barely see around the doorway of their kitchen to the table her cousin was sitting at. Lucy nodded. "That's unusual for you."

Lucy tended to be a morning person; for her, sleeping past 9 was almost unheard of, and it was approaching 1:30.

"I know," her cousin said around a mouthful of cereal. Once she'd swallowed, she added, "I didn't get home last night until about 3. I meant to get up this morning, but..." She shrugged. "Couldn't do it."

Rose slid into the chair across from her and poured herself a cup of tea from the steaming teapot Lucy had left sitting on the table. She was more than a little curious about what had kept her cousin out so late, but she'd learned months ago that asking would do no good.

"So how'd Scorpius like his first Weasley family Saturday?" Lucy asked as Rose took a sip of her tea. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there - you know how work is."

Rose didn't really know how work was, not in the sense Lucy was talking about; for one thing, Lucy worked in the Department of Mysteries, and for another, she'd already been there for a few years, having been two years above Rose in school. She nodded anyway; there wasn't really any other appropriate response.

"It was all right," she said, frowning into her tea. "He felt a little awkward, and he kind of stuck by me, Albus, and James most of the time, but I guess that's to be expected, right?"

Lucy snorted. "James, huh?" Rose grinned despite the memory of his request the previous night, and Lucy pushed her bowl away from her. "Anyway, yeah, I'd be surprised if he'd felt comfortable the first time out. It can be a bit overwhelming, and he doesn't exactly have much practice."

Rose hesitated, but after a moment, she decided to confide in Lucy about the conversation that had followed. "He wants me to meet his grandparents," she said, and Lucy's eyebrows rose a centimetre.

"Haven't you already?"

"His other grandparents."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up. "What, the Malfoys?" Rose nodded, and Lucy sat back in her seat looking very curious. "What did you say?"

It took about ten minutes, but she eventually managed to wring the entire exchange out of Rose, who would have liked to just forget it completely. Unfortunately, it was looking like this was going to be a bit of sticking point for him, which left her somewhat at a crossroads.

On one hand, Scorpius really was a good boyfriend. It wasn't just that his personality fit with hers, or that she enjoyed spending time with him. Those things were true, of course, but he also put real effort into their relationship. He was attentive, he was patient, and once she'd got past the sarcasm and the dry humour, she'd really been able to process just how much he loved her and just how much he would do for her.

It said something that where most of her cousins who had gone into similar fields had been unable to hang onto their significant other - James and his girlfriend had gone through a thoroughly unpleasant and painful breakup at the end of their seventh year, and the only lovers Dominique had managed to hang onto for any length of time either worked in Dragon Research with her or in a similar division like the D.C.B. As far as Rose knew, Louis didn't even really bother, though she supposed that you never did know with Louis. He tended to keep his own council.

Even Albus, who was involved with a fellow Auror trainee, had more than his share of relationship issues, though Rose privately thought that Albus's issues probably had less to do with his being an Auror and more to do with his being Albus.

The only Weasley cousin who'd gone into a dangerous profession who really had a healthy, functional relationship was Victoire... but even there, Teddy was a Cursebreaker, which really was quite different from a Healer.

But Scorpius hung in there.

Or at least, he had so far. She supposed it was never too late for a sudden, dramatic breakup.

"What are you going to do?" Lucy asked, and Rose blinked, refocusing on her cousin. Lucy had her head cocked to the side, and there was an openly curious expression on her face.

Rose sighed. "I don't know," she said. "I feel like I owe it to him to at least give it a chance."

Her cousin frowned. "That's really not the way you should be looking at it," she told Rose. Her voice was still mild, but something in her deep brown eyes gave Rose the distinct impression that Lucy had a strong opinion about this.

"Why not?"

Lucy let out a sigh and shook her head. "Because... Rose, if you do it just because you think you owe him, you're just going to end up resenting him for it, even though he didn't actually make you do anything."

Shortly after that, Lucy excused herself to go take a bath, leaving Rose to puzzle it out. She didn't come to any conclusions - she was just left feeling more confused and conflicted than ever.

She considered talking to James about it; they'd always been close, and he'd given her a lot of good advice when she and Scorpius had started going out in their fifth year. Rose wasn't entirely sure that Scorpius would _agree_ that it had been good advice, but they'd worked everything out, so it couldn't have been too terrible.

However, while James and Scorpius were getting along much better as of late than they ever had before, she wasn't entirely sure that James would really understand where she was coming from, and she didn't quite feel right about talking to him without someone else there to balance him out. She didn't need someone to convince her that Scorpius was being unreasonable, especially since she would have loved to take that as an out.

It ended up not being relevant; when she got to work the next day, James stuck his head inside the trainee cubicle she shared with Alex Finnigan and said, "Hey, Rosie, you have plans tonight?" She shook her head. "Al said to tell you that you should come to our flat for dinner tonight."

"Who's cooking?" she asked suspiciously. James could be a pretty decent cook when he put his mind to it, but Albus - for all his virtues - was absolutely hopeless in the kitchen. He claimed that he was getting better all the time. Rose thought that that depended entirely on whether you liked cardboard more than the smell of burning rubber. She supposed that she did, but neither was something she wanted in a meal.

James grinned. "Me."

"So Al volunteered you to do the cooking _and_ invited a guest?" she asked. "How's that work?"

"Ask him," James said. "I take it that's a yes?" She nodded. He disappeared from the doorway, and she breathed a sigh of relief. If she wanted to talk about it, she could talk to Albus.

"Is Albus a bad cook?" Alex asked curiously. He had his feet propped up on the desk and was studying one of the books from the shelf propped up against the far wall; as the day when they would be sent into the field to face real monsters approached, Alex seemed to be getting more and more paranoid that his father - who headed the D.C.B. - would end up deciding that he wasn't quite ready after all. Seamus Finnigan didn't _seem_ like that kind of person to Rose, but Alex knew his father better than she did, and at any rate, parents could be rather stupid about their children sometimes.

Her parents certainly were, and her uncle Harry seemed to be so intent on proving that he wasn't playing favourites with Albus that training was even harder for her cousin than it was supposed to be.

"He's terrible," she said, turning back to the map that tracked acromantula movement across the British Isles. According to the map, there was an enormous nest in the Forbidden Forest; she wondered why the D.C.B. hadn't bothered to go in and stomp it out. "His cooking tastes like cardboard."

Alex snorted as he tossed his book onto the desk. "So the 'homemade' biscuits he made for our dormitory after N.E.W.T.s were really from Honeydukes or something?"

"Well, if they were edible, he certainly didn't make them."

"Figures." Alex jerked his head toward the map. "Which one is that?"

"The acromantulas," she said. "Hey, Alex, do you know if there's still a nest in the Forbidden Forest?"

"I do, actually," he said. "I asked Dad about it a few weeks ago. There is. Apparently, it's too big to get rid of easily, and since nobody's ever died and they're really deep in..." He shrugged. "I guess the Ministry decided it wasn't an appropriate use of resources."

"Oh." She glanced back at the map. The glowing red spiders seemed to be spread across an alarming amount of the Forbidden Forest, and there were too many of them for comfort; it was one of the biggest nests in Britain. "Seems - er - dangerous."

"Yeah." Alex sighed. "I thought so, too. But I guess that's why we're the trainees, huh?"

"Guess so." She glanced at the Forbidden Forest again, and then tapped the map with her wand. It went dark. "Think we'll be getting squad assignments today?"

Alex slumped down in his chair. "I dunno," he said morosely. "But I bet you get a great assignment and I have to follow Dad around for a year."

They did not end up getting their squad assignments that day, though when they were eating lunch Rose's cousin Victoire hinted that it would be happening before the week was out. She looked strangely pleased with herself, though Rose wasn't sure if it was just because she knew when it was happening or if she'd succeeded in convincing their boss to put Rose with her. She had failed to convince him to do so with James, but maybe things were different now.

When Rose tried to press her, however, Victoire had just laughed and changed the subject. She was just going to have to try to be patient.

She already knew from experience that she wasn't very good at it, though.

At the end of the day, James poked his head in, and she followed him out to the floo network. It landed them in the lobby of the witches-and-wizards-only building he and Albus lived in, and they climbed the flight of stairs that led to the flat.

Once they got inside, James wandered off in the direction of the kitchen, and Rose tossed her coat and gloves onto their couch on her way to Albus's bedroom. The door was closed, but the light streaming out from the crack where it met the floor indicated that he was already home.

She knocked loudly, and after a moment, he called, "Come in!"

Rose pushed the door open. When he saw that it was her, he tossed the book he'd been reading aside. "You came."

"I heard you weren't cooking," she responded, flopping onto the foot of his bed.

He made a face. "I'm not _that_ bad," he said. "Bridget said I'm getting pretty good. I made her breakfast yesterday."

"It's a good thing that she's the one learning Legilimency, not you." He looked a little stung, and she hastened to add, "I dunno, Al, maybe you are. I haven't wanted to risk it in so long that for all I know, you're a master chef now."

He rolled his eyes but looked appeased. "Yeah, that's me. Albus Potter, Auror trainee and cook. I'm multi-talented."

Rose privately thought that her cousin had quite a lot of talents, but she wasn't about to tell him that, especially since she still very much doubted that cooking had become one of them.

He cocked his head to one side. "You look distracted. What's wrong?"

She glanced toward the door, which was still hanging open. She could hear James turn on the radio in the kitchen, which meant that they were about as alone as they were going to get that night.

Rose usually didn't like to drag Albus into issues that she and Scorpius were having. It just didn't seem fair to put him in the middle, and he was always so conflicted about it that he wasn't even helpful. Here, however, she had decided to make this an exception - Lucy had given her decent advice, but Lucy didn't know Scorpius all that well, and she didn't know Rose as well as Albus did, either. Maybe he'd have some special insight that would solve all of her problems.

Probably not, though. But it was still worth talking to him about it.

"Scorpius wants me to meet his grandparents," she said. Her cousin immediately looked away from her, and her temper rose. "You _knew?"_

Albus sighed. "Yes, Rose, I knew that he wanted you to meet his grandparents. Are you really that surprised?"

She supposed she wasn't; if Scorpius was going to talk to anyone about asking her about that, it would probably be Albus. "So what did he say?" she demanded, leaning forward.

She didn't really expect him to respond, so she was surprised when he sighed again, ran his fingers through his dark red hair, and answered her. "Just that he was considering asking you." She continued to stare at him, and he made a face. "Then I told him that if it was important to him, he should ask you, but that it was asking a lot."

"You get it, then?" she asked hopefully. She'd spent the day before second-guessing herself about whether what he was asking was really so difficult after all.

"Of course I do," her cousin said. "His grandfather used to kill people like you. I wouldn't want to get all friendly with him, either." He glanced toward the door; the strong smell of garlic and olive oil was beginning to permeate the flat, and right on cue, they heard a faint sound of chopping from the kitchen. "But I also understand why it's important to him." Albus shrugged. "It's a hard situation, Rose. I know that, and so do you."

She slumped back against the wall. So much for Albus's advice. "What should I do?"

Albus considered her for a minute. "Whatever you think is right." She wrinkled her nose, but she was completely distracted by his next word. "But..."

"But what?" she asked quickly, leaning forward. Her heart was starting to beat harder.

Her cousin shook his head. "Look, I'm not trying to guilt you into it or anything. I know you, and I know that if you feel guilted, you won't do it just to be contrary." Rose smiled despite herself. "But... Rosie, I don't want to scare you. But how much more 'Rose gets her way' do you think your relationship can take?"

Now she could feel her heartbeat in the veins; her neck in particular was throbbing unpleasantly. "What do you mean?"

Albus wasn't looking at her now. "It's just - whenever there's any kind of conflict, it seems like it goes your way, and he just adjusts to it because he's a lot more easygoing than you are."

"He does not!"

Albus held up his hand. "The D.C.B.," he said, ticking off one finger. She opened her mouth to protest, and he added, "I'm not saying that you shouldn't have joined, or that you should have decided your career based on your school boyfriend. I'm just saying that it's a hard situation for him, especially since he's going to become a Healer, and it's one where _he_ had to adjust to your choices, and you didn't have to do anything."

She closed her mouth quickly.

He ticked off another finger. "The family Saturday. Yes, he seemed to have a decent time, but that's not something that he would have gone to if _you_ hadn't specifically asked him. He knew it was important to you, so he went."

"He should have said something if it bothered him so much," she snapped, and Albus shook his head.

"Rosie, that's the thing - a lot of it _doesn't_ bother him so much. But it's still a pattern where you get what you want and he just lives with it, and _you_ need to be more aware of it. You _know_ that's what he's like - how many times did he smooth over awkward situations for you at school?"

Rose felt her face flush.

Albus tapped a third finger. "Dinner with your parents. Meeting your mother's parents. Going to -"

"I get it," she snapped, pulling her knees up to her chest and wishing that she'd told James she couldn't make it to dinner. "I'm a terrible girlfriend. Though by the way, I've been to dinner with _his_ parents and met _his_ mother's parents, too."

"And who felt more uncomfortable about it?" She winced - Scorpius had definitely felt very awkward and uncomfortable going into the Muggle world. "Exactly." She looked away from his and down at the blanket on his bed. It looked like one of their grandmother's; the lion was very distinctive. "Rose, I'm not saying you're a terrible girlfriend. _He_ certainly doesn't seem to think so, and for what it's worth, I don't, either. I'm just saying that I don't think you always give him enough credit, and that I think you need to start putting yourself out there, too, even when it makes you feel uncomfortable."

"So you think I should meet his grandparents?"

Albus shrugged. "I don't know. As far as requests go, that's a pretty big one. I don't think he'd blame you for saying no."

"But it would mean a lot to him if I said yes," she prompted.

"Oh, yes." Albus nodded. "It would mean the world to him."

If she seemed a little preoccupied throughout dinner, James didn't notice, and Albus clearly understood what she was struggling with. He _hadn't_ given her a magic answer to solve everything perfectly - in some ways, he'd even made it all more complicated - but he had helped to clarify this for her. He wasn't shocked when she said she had to leave shortly after they'd finished eating what had turned out to be a delicious pasta dish, and James had waved her off after exacting a promise that they'd do it again soon.

They worked together, but it really wasn't the same, and she knew that there was no way in hell that they were going to be put in the same squad. He was too new at it.

By the time she got to her boyfriend's, it was well after 9. She knocked, and when he answered the door, he looked a little surprised to see her standing there.

"Hey," he said, stepping back to let her in. "I - er, did I forget that you were coming by?"

The locks reengaged behind them as she followed him into the living room. "No," she said, perching on one of the chairs. "I wasn't planning to."

Scorpius flopped onto the couch and frowned at her. "Well, not that I don't love your company, but I've got to be up at 6, so I should be getting to sleep soon. Is something wrong?" She swallowed and tried to muster up the courage to speak, but for once, it seemed to have deserted her. His face took on a note of alarm. "Oh, Merlin. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" she said quickly. "I - I just -" He was looking more and more wary, which was the opposite of what she wanted. "I'll have lunch with your grandmother," she managed to get out. "Just her. But I will."

His face cleared. "Really?" She nodded, and he sat up. "Come here." She joined him on the couch, and was more surprised than she probably should have been when he sunk his fingers into her hair and kissed her. She could feel herself begin to get swept away, and when he pulled back, it took her a moment to shake the feeling of being dazed. "Thank you," he said, leaning his forehead against hers. "You're sure?"

"Yes." To her surprise, she managed to keep her voice quite steady.

Scorpius smiled at her. "Thank you," he repeated softly.

In that moment, Rose knew that no matter how awkward this meeting turned out to be - and she had the feeling that it would probably be quite awkward - she was making the right decision.

* * *

A/N: Hey, guys. Yay, new chapter! Hopefully you like it, and I'll plan to get new ones up every Wednesday. :)

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far (especially Allison, no offense to anyone else - she's one of my favourite readers ever. I wrote her a story and everything! I am very excited to find her here). I'll try to post more of my stories over here - it's just really not very user-friendly compared to HPFF, and now I'm accustomed to my pretty banners and stuff. :( But if there's interest, I will persevere and juggle things around, just for you guys. :)

Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next Wednesday! As always, reviews are loved, adored, and appreciated.

Beeezie


	3. DCB Assignments

The next day, Rose and Alex got their assignments, and Rose could not have been happier. She didn't know what her cousin had on their boss for him to have made this concession, but he'd actually given her over to Victoire and Van Dedworth for field training. Technically, Dedworth was in charge - he'd joined the D.C.B. about twenty years ago, back when it was first starting up, and he knew spells and tricks about monsters that Rose was sure she couldn't even imagine - but the main attraction of the assignment was her cousin. Rose barely knew Dedworth; she'd probably talked to him half a dozen time since joining the Bureau the previous autumn. She did, however, know her cousin, and getting to work with Victoire - who was exceedingly good at both dueling and finding trouble - was an exciting prospect.

Alex, to his considerable surprise, did not have to follow his father around for a year. Rose couldn't quite understand his relief when she saw his assignment - _he_ would be following Lavender Brown and a light-haired man named Camden Crockford around for the following year. Crockford seemed to be all right, but Rose found Lavender Brown to be extremely intimidating. The fact that she was second-in-command of their department only added to the intimidating aura the heavy scarring across her face already created. She didn't seem _mean,_ but still, Rose tried to avoid her as often as possible.

"Well, she is his godmother," Van said when she mentioned it to Victoire shortly after she'd arrived at their small cubicle and taken her seat at a deserted desk in the corner. He had his feet up on his desk, and he was tossing a stuffed manticore up into the air and catching it. "Of course he's glad he's been put with her."

"She is? How do you know?"

Victoire snorted. Unlike Dedworth, she actually appeared to be working; her long red hair was tied back from her face, and she was scrutinising a small stack of reports. "Rosie, never ask Van how he knows something about Lavender. You'll just end up confused."

There was something about the way she said it that made Rose wonder what exactly the subtext was, and if it had just been her and her cousin, she probably would have pressed Victoire for an explanation. However, it wasn't just them, and it didn't seem like a good idea to pursue a line of questioning that could annoy or offend her direct supervisor on her very first day.

"So when do we do something interesting?" she asked instead.

This time, it was Dedworth who gave the snort of laughter. "As soon as we find something worth checking out. Don't worry. Something will come up soon." He tossed the stuffed manticore onto his desk, swiveled around so his feet were back on the floor, and grabbed a few reports off it that from a distance looked quite similar to the ones Victoire was pouring over. "Something always does."

Rose felt her heartbeat quicken. This was exactly why she'd been so intent on joining the D.C.B. that she'd signed up two days after she'd taken the Hogwarts Express home for the last time.

In years past, dark wizards had been the major threat facing the wizarding world. There were certainly plenty of magical creatures you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, but attacks on humans were isolated events. They weren't especially uncommon - everyone had a story about how their cousin's best mate or their sister's boyfriend's aunt had been attacked by a vicious kelpie or a group of grindylows when they were fishing - but they were isolated. They were just part of living in the wizarding world.

But things had changed. Those incidents were more common, and more importantly, attacks by really dangerous creatures - acromantulas, manticores, trolls, and other XXXX or XXXXX creatures - were becoming increasingly common. There had even been rumours that the quintapeds were crossing over to the mainland, though those reports had yet to be substantiated. Nobody seemed to know what was causing the spike, but after about twenty years of ignoring the signs, it was undeniable that something was very, very wrong.

The wizarding world had focused too much of their energy on dark wizards following the Second Wizarding War, and they'd forgotten there were other dark things out there. Now they were paying the price.

"What can I do?" Rose asked.

Victoire and Dedworth both looked over at her, and then at each other. After a moment, Dedworth held up his sheaf of parchments and grinned. "Pull up a seat," he said. "Vic's looking into the quintapeds again. It's not really beginner work. I've got some reports claiming that there have been some mysterious disappearances near Hogsmeade, though."

"Are there really quintapeds?" Rose asked as she dragged her chair over to his desk.

Victoire glanced up. "Maybe. It's difficult to tell. iThe Prophet/i has been reporting all the rumours to death lately, which means every Bones, Scamander, and Zeller in the country is claiming they've seen one. Usually, they're just seeing shadows, but sometimes it's acromantulas, and there've been a few tips that felt suspicious, but when we swept the area..." She shrugged. "Nothing."

Rose collapsed into her chair and frowned. "Maybe this is a - well - er - not pleasant question, but if there are quintapeds, what are they eating?"

Victoire let out a sigh, but it was Dedworth who answered. "That's a very, very good question." She looked over at him. The grin had vanished from his face. "Makes you think about these disappearances a little differently, doesn't it?"

Rose shuddered.

"Yeah. Right there with you." He gestured toward the parchment on his desk. "However, I really idon't/i think that these are quintapeds. If I did, I'd have handed them over to Vic."

"What are they, then?"

He considered her for a moment, and then passed the top report over. "What does this sound like to you?"

She scanned it. The first thought that popped into her head was absolutely ridiculous, so she read through it again, this time more slowly. "I - I'm not sure," she said after her third time through.

Dedworth raised his eyebrows at her. "It's bad form to lie to your superior, you know."

Rose wrinkled her nose as she read through the document a fourth time. "Well, I had an idea, but it's stupid." When he kept looking at her, she sighed. "I _thought_ it sounded like an erkling. The little boy said he heard something in the forest, and then his mum went out to investigate and never came back. But they're on the continent. They don't exist here." Her voice wavered slightly with uncertainty as she looked up at him. "Do they?"

"Good question." He ran a hand through his dark brown hair, which was cropped close to his head. "That we know of, no, but there's an awful lot we don't know these days."

"But how would it iget/i here?" she asked. "They don't swim. And I thought the German Ministry had them well under control."

He shrugged. "Maybe it hitched a ride on something. Maybe someone or something brought it. Hard to say. And as far as the German Ministry goes... well, if this does turn out to be an erkling, that'll be a good question to ask them, won't it?"

Rose only half-heard his comment about the German Ministry. "Someone?"

"Well, you'll have a hard time convincing me that all the creatures that seem to have hopped over from the continent in the last decade figured it out on their own. Most of them aren't very smart, you know."

By the end of the day, Victoire and Dedworth seemed to have decided that enough of the reports from Hogsmeade had real substance that it was worth checking rather than foisting the disappearance off on Magical Law Enforcement. Rose was just getting ready to leave when she heard a very familiar laugh echo down the corridor.

She stuck her head out and saw her cousin James sauntering down the hall with Natalie McDonald and Brennan Pummell. "Did you see its face?" he asked them. "Did you _see_ its face?"

Brennan was clearly struggling to hold back giggles herself. "Well, that answers that question: forest trolls really _are_ too stupid to feel surprised."

McDonald wasn't joining in with their gleefulness - which was probably just as well, since she was supposed to be in charge of them - but she was looking quite amused herself. "You both need to calm down," she said. "We're inside now, remember? We have a reputation to maintain."

James brandished an imaginary wand. "A reputation for being brilliant and getting the job done!"

McDonald surveyed the two of them for another moment before turning away. "I need to go report to Seamus," she said. "Try to calm yourselves down. It was just a few forest trolls. I'm sure you'll have to fight them again." She strode down the corridor toward an ajar door and closed it behind her as she slipped inside the room beyond it.

James looked around. "Rosie!" he said, his eyes settling on her. "How are you?"

"Fine, but you don't really care. What happened with forest trolls?"

Her cousin smirked and ran a hand through his shaggy black hair. Brennan had given up trying to suppress her giggles once McDonald had disappeared, but at this point she appeared to be laughing at James as much as with him.

"We bumped into a few of them," he said. "We were looking into a possible acromantula nest, actually, but we found trolls instead." He stretched his hands over his head. He looked exceedingly pleased with himself. "I've never gotten to fight a forest troll before."

"How hard could they be?" Rose asked, leaning against the wall. "I thought they were the smallest of the trolls,"

"Oh, they are," Brennan answered. "But they're tricky little bastards. Forest trolls can be a real pain in the arse. Give me a good straightforward mountain troll any day."

"Really."

Brennan smiled at the heavy sarcasm. "No, I'm actually serious, Rose. Forest trolls always travel in packs. They're dead stupid, but I think they have a hive mind - like bees, or something - because they always attack together. It really is a pain in the arse. I can take a mountain troll alone, but forest trolls..." She shook her head.

Rose had no idea if bees really did have a hive mind. She rather doubted it - that sounded a little too much like something out of Beedle the Bard's lost stories or something - but she didn't care enough to find out. "Huh. Learn something new every day." That was one of her favourite parts of working for the D.C.B.: no matter how much she learned, there always seemed to be something new. She surveyed James and Brennan again - there was blossoming bruise across his collarbone, and she had a large cut with congealing blood on her cheek. "Did you - er - have to stop to get treated for anything?"

James snorted. "No, Rosie, we didn't go to St. Mungo's and give your boyfriend a heart attack."

She felt her face colour. She hadn't meant for her question to be quite so obvious, but it seemed that James knew her too well for it to really matter how she phrased it.

"Wait, your boyfriend works in St. Mungo's?" Brennan asked, cocking her head to one side. "What, as a Healer?" Rose nodded, and Brennan let out a low whistle. "That's tough," she said. "I'm sure he can't wait for you to get brought in."

Rose looked away from her. What Scorpius would say when she was carted into St. Mungo's after some tangle with a monster - it was inevitable that it would happen sooner or later - was not something she wanted to think about just then.

There was an awkward moment where no one seemed to quite know what to say, and then Brennan turned away. "I'm going to get going," she said. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

Rose and James were left standing alone in the corridor. She sighed. "Sorry, James. I didn't mean to ruin your fun."

He shrugged and gave an easy smile. "Nah, it's fine. It'd take more than that to ruin _my_ fun." He nudged her. "C'mon, buy me a drink as congratulations on the forest troll and all of that."

Rose considered that for a moment before grinning back. "Sure," she said. "It's not like I have anything better to do." James laughed as she ducked back inside her new cubicle. "I'm heading out, okay?"

Victoire looked up from the map she and Dedworth were examining. "Night," she said. "Tell James congratulations."

James poked his head inside. "Thank you," he said cheerfully. "I'm very pleased with myself."

"I bet you are." Victoire glanced back down at the map. "Have fun."

Rose slipped on her jacket as she and James hurried down the hallway. "Let's stop and see if Al is around," James suggested. Rose was more than happy to oblige, but by the time they got to the Auror floor, Albus was gone. Given that Bridget was gone, too, they decided that it probably wasn't worth the effort to track him down.

Twenty minutes later, they were enjoying drinks at the Leaky Cauldron. Tuesday was not a popular drinking night, so the pub was nearly empty, which was probably just as well - James got progressively louder as he worked his way through his first drink, and he didn't stop talking about the trolls until he'd started his second.

"Hope I have as good a time Thursday." Rose stared into her empty glass. "You always have all the luck. Bet I'll get to Hogsmeade and it'll turn out to be something really boring."

"Nah." He clinked his glass to hers. "You'll find a whole nest of erklings, and the missing mum alive and hiding in a tree." She rolled her eyes, and he smiled at her. "Want another? My treat."

"Wasn't I treating you?"

James shrugged. "You're my ickle baby cousin. It's no problem. Do you want one?"

Rose glanced at the cracked old clock hanging on the wall; it wasn't even eight o'clock yet. "Sure," she said. "Thanks."

He ruffled her hair with one hand and grabbed her glass with the other. She jerked away, scowling at him. He laughed and headed toward the bar.

Rose loved her cousin dearly, but occasionally she wished he'd treat her a little more like an adult and a little less like his baby cousin. She was less than a year younger than he was, and they were both out of Hogwarts and working in the same division.

When he pushed her refilled drink across and the table and slid back into the seat across from her, however, the grin he gave her made her irritation melt away. Sometimes James could be a bit obnoxious, but he really did mean it in good fun, and besides, he'd been such a good friend for so long that she really couldn't find it in her to get too annoyed with him.

"So what's going on with Al and Bridget?" she asked as he took a sip of his dragonale. He choked on it, and she winced. "Sorry. That bad?" His eyes were watering, but he brushed the tears away and coughed a few times. "Sorry," she repeated.

He shook his head. "No, it's fine. You just caught me by surprise." He took another sip of his drink and looked up at the ceiling. She didn't rush him, and eventually, he said, "Well, Albus is being Albus. He doesn't like conflict, and he doesn't like to talk about his feelings. So poor Bridget was taken completely by surprise when she discovered during their legilimency/occlumency training - which, by the way, is the _stupidest_ thing ever and Dad is cracked for approving it - that he's had feelings for her since his fourth year."

Rose winced. "How'd she take that?"

"Before or after she said, in her very exasperated Bridget way, 'Al, you should have _told_ me. We could have started going out years ago'?" Rose groaned. "Yeah, exactly. That's why I thought he could use a drink. But they were both gone, so maybe they're off patching it up."

Privately, Rose thought it was unlikely that anything that required Albus to talk to Bridget about his feelings could be patched up in an evening, but she decided against saying so. She didn't have to: from the look on his face, James was similarly sceptical.

"Enough about Albus." James sat back in his chair and regarded her with open curiosity. "What's up with you and Scorpius? You clammed up when Bren asked about him earlier. I thought Saturday went fine."

Rose sighed, but the drink seemed to have loosened her tongue. "It did, but afterward, we went back to his flat, and he asked me to meet his grandparents."

James's eyebrows shot up. "Why now?"

"I don't know. I guess having to spend all of Saturday with the Weasleys gave him the opening or something."

"Well, what did you say?"

Rose drained the rest of her glass. "Well, he amended it to just his grandmother pretty quickly, and yesterday I told him I would."

James regarded her for a moment. "Want some water?"

"Merlin, _yes._"

Rose didn't regret telling Scorpius that she would meet Narcissa Malfoy. It was clearly a sticking point for him, and given how long they'd been together, it really wasn't such an unreasonable thing to ask.

However, every time she thought about the actual meeting, a pit opened up in her stomach, and the idea of Narcissa-Malfoy-the-You-Know-Who-supporter warred with the fact that according to both Scorpius and her uncle Harry, Narcissa Malfoy had played a direct role in her uncle's defeat of You-Know-Who. Rose had no idea what had changed the woman's mind, and she also had no idea how Narcissa would react to her. Rose was a halfblood who threatened the purity of the Malfoy blood. Blood status freaks tended not to be too fond of her.

Of course, they'd never been fond of her, so Scorpius was really just another excuse.

"So when are you meeting her?" James deposited her glass of water in front of her, and she sipped at it gratefully.

"I don't know yet, but if I'm lucky, it'll be weeks."

James gave a snort of laughter as he finished his drink. "Keep dreaming. I know your boyfriend pretty well at this point. I bet he'll have it set up for Sunday." Rose groaned, and her cousin shook his head. "Come on, Rosie. It'll be interesting, at least."

Rose sighed. "Yeah, well, as long as she doesn't start going on at me about polluting the Malfoy blood or whatever, I'll be happy."

He grimaced. "Oh. Well. There is that, isn't there?"

"Mm." She glanced up at the clock, and was about to suggest that they get going when a question she'd had earlier that day occurred to her. "Oh, I wanted to ask you -" She stopped, trying to figure out how to phrase it.

"Ask me what?" James prompted her.

Rose bit her lip. "Um. This is a little weird, but - well - is Dedworth Ms. Brown's stalker or her boyfriend?"

James broke into raucous laughter, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Sorry," he managed to get out. "It's just -" He collapsed into another fit of giggles, and she made a face.

It took several minutes for him to calm down enough to answer her, during which time she strongly considered just getting up and leaving. She was about to do so when he finally composed himself.

"Sorry," he said again. "It's just - well, first off, she's Lavender, and he's Van. She wouldn't like to be called 'Ms. Brown,' and there are two Dedworths in the division, remember?" Rose felt her face start to get red. "And second... oh, Merlin. That's a good question, and I'm not sure anyone knows the answer except Van. And _maybe_ Lavender."

"But she's -" Rose couldn't think of a tactful way to say it, so she decided to go with the untactful way. "She's scary and has all those scars and isn't she about ten years older than him?" James grinned, and she added, _"And_ she's his superior. Shouldn't they not be - um - fraternising, or something?"

"She's not _that_ scary once you get to know her," James said. "But all the rest of it - well, kind of, yeah, which is probably why there's not a simple answer. He's apparently been in love with her for ages, though."

"Define ages."

"At least a decade. Maybe two."

Rose didn't think that she would ever be able to look at Van Dedworth the same way again.

By the time she got home, it was well after nine, and she was ready to collapse. The day had been more than a little draining.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, however, she heard a loud noise from her cousin's room, and after a moment, Lucy's face appeared around her partially-ajar door. "Hey," she said. "Scorpius was here. He left you a note."

Rose frowned as she dropped her jacket and hat on the threadbare couch in their living room. Lucy pursed her lips together, but before she could voice her disapproval, Rose asked, "When? Did he stay for long?"

"He stopped by around seven," Lucy said, momentarily diverted. "I told him I didn't know when you'd be back, though, so he didn't stay. Rose, you really shouldn't leave your stuff -"

Rose spotted the folded parchment lying on the old wooden table just outside her door. "Thanks, Luce," she said, bounding over to her room, snatching up the letter, and slipping inside. Just before she closed her door behind her, she heard her cousin let out an exasperated sigh.

She collapsed onto her bed and opened the letter. It was quite short.

_Rose,_

_Talked to my grandmother. She said she's free Saturday or Sunday, whatever's easiest for us. She can't wait to meet you. Owl me back your answer, or just stop by tomorrow._

_Thanks again for doing this - I'm sure you'll like her._

_Love you,_

_Scorpius_

* * *

__

A/N: Hey! Thank you so much for reading, and a special thanks to everyone who's reviewed, followed, or favourited so far - I'm really glad to see that you guys are enjoying this, and I hope that you continue to. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, even if they're as simple as "Great chapter!" or "Rose meeting Narcissa? Oh dear, Scorpius, I hope this doesn't backfire on you."

See you next week. :)


	4. Field Work

Rose had intended to stop by Scorpius's flat on her way home Wednesday, but she sent her owl with a response, anyway. Committing to an actual time and place would make it a lot more difficult to change her mind, and she'd probably rest easier knowing that, for better or worse, it was taken care of. She suspected that he felt the same way.

_If it's okay with you, Sunday is probably better. James and Vic might want to take me out on Friday to celebrate, and then I was kind of planning to keep you up all night._

_Love you too._

She rolled the note up and handed it off to her owl. "Take this to Scorpius, okay?"

Godric nipped at her finger before taking flight through the open window, and Rose settled in to read for a bit before going to sleep. She was just switching off the light when her owl swooped back in through her partially ajar window, and to her surprise, he landed on her nightstand and held out his leg.

She extracted the note attached to it and ruffled his feathers. He flew back into the night to hunt, and she held her wand over the small piece of parchment.

_All night, huh?_

Rose felt a shiver run through her, and she carefully put it down on her bedside table. Yes, she was definitely going to stop by his place the next evening.

She had never met anyone else who had the power to get her heart racing with three short words the way he could - which was really just as well. She was perfectly happy going out with Scorpius, and she didn't even want to think about not being with him. There weren't many things that Rose thought that she would be unable to handle, but losing her boyfriend was one of them.

The next day at work saw Rose looking down at a very different piece of parchment that had been handed to her as soon as she'd walked in. "What's this?"

"Just a precaution." Dedworth leaned back against his desk. "You know how it goes. Sooner or later you're going to end up in St. Mungo's. Everyone in the division has. I doubt it'll happen tomorrow, but..." He shrugged.

She looked back down at the form. The words "Emergency Contact" leapt out at her, and she started to jot down her mother's name without even thinking about it. Then an idea occurred to her.

"Er - my emergency contact doesn't need to be a relative, right?" Dedworth shook his head, and she crossed out _Herm-_ and etched in _Scorpius Malfoy_ instead. It was entirely possible that her parents would kill her when they found out, but Rose figured that they'd hear about any accident pretty quickly through James, Victoire, or Teddy, anyway, and... well, it was _her_emergency contact, and after all, she'd been going out with Scorpius for three and a half years. It was her business.

She handed the parchment over a few minutes later, and Dedworth scanned it. "Who's Scorpius Malfoy?" he asked as he bent down to put it in one of his drawers.

"My boyfriend." The glance he sent her way made her flush. "He works in St. Mungo's."

"Huh." Dedworth collapsed into his chair. "Lucky you. Wish I had my own private Healer."

"He's still in training." Rose shifted uncomfortably; what James had told her about Dedworth and Lavender the evening before had her feeling even more awkward around him than she had before, and Victoire was uncharacteristically late. "But - I dunno. My parents will find out through someone. I don't know if anyone but my cousin Albus would think to tell him, not at first, and if something happens..." She trailed off.

"You want him there?" She nodded. "I know the feeling. When'd you start going out?"

"Beginning of fifth year." Rose leaned back and wrapped her arms around herself. "He's really great."

As soon as she said that, she felt her face get hot again. "He's really great" made her sound like she was fifteen again, and they were at the very beginning of their relationship.

Dedworth didn't comment on it, though. "Good for you," he said instead. "Malfoy. Hold on, he's not related to Johanna Greengrass, is he?"

"Er - yes, actually. Why?"

"She was bragging about her 'baby cousins' going into Healing and the Department of Mysteries. I think it made up for her sister taking the boring option and joining Magical Transportation."

"Who?" Victoire asked from the doorway. "Jo?" Dedworth nodded. "What about her?"

"We were just talking about your cousin's boyfriend. He's her emergency contact, apparently."

Victoire glanced over at Rose, who immediately looked down at the desk in front of her. "Oh. Well, speaking of Jo, she and Micah and Fred are coming by Saturday, if you want to join us."

Dedworth stretched. "Yeah, I should be able to make it," he said after a moment. "I mean, I might have to cancel a hot date -"

Victoire threw a glove at him. "As if she'd _give_you a date." He made a face, and they started to chat about other things. Rose watched them without trying to get involved in the conversation - Victoire had been working with Dedworth for years, and it showed in the easy, relaxed way they interacted. She wondered what they'd be like in the field.

She also wondered whether she'd ever feel comfortable enough to tease either of them the way they teased each other. Victoire was her cousin, of course, and Rose felt comfortable talking to her, but she couldn't imagine making the sort of off-colour comments about her cousin's sex life that Dedworth was currently making.

"Hey, Rosie." Rose started. "You in for tomorrow?" Rose nodded, and her cousin smiled and tossed a book to her. "Start reading up, then."

"Reading up?"

"Well, we know you can cast spells," Victoire said. "Once you get to this division and go through your training, it's not a question of whether you can cast spells. It's a question of whether you know what spells_to_cast. Hence..." She gestured toward the book.

Rose managed to repress a sigh. She didn't understand how even the most exciting jobs could have so much boring desk work. She'd have almost regretted going into the D.C.B., but according to her cousin Louis, Hit Wizards was exactly the same.

And if even the Hit Wizards made you crack open a book, _everyone_did.

"Got it." Rose cracked the book open and tried to ignore her cousin and Dedworth. Judging from their conversation, which had moved onto the romantic trip to Ireland that Teddy apparently was planning to take Victoire on that weekend, neither of whom appeared to feel it necessary for them to do any reading in preparation for the next day. Rose didn't mind reading for fun, but this book was dull, and the illustrations were disgusting.

Her cousin and Dedworth took pity on her after lunch and started talking to her about Erklings and other creatures that more habitually went through Hogsmeade. They really weren't telling her much that she couldn't have found in the book, but somehow, it was significantly more interesting when someone was telling the story.

Still, she was eager for the day to be done - sitting around an office was not her forte - and she went straight to Scorpius's place when the workday ended. When she got there, she knocked on the door. There were footsteps inside, and then the door swung open. "You know, you really could just let yourself in," Scorpius said. "I've told you what the spell is."

"I just feel weird doing it." She stepped inside the flat and pushed the door closed behind her. "And anyway, what if you decided to go off and have a hot wild affair with some other girl? I could walk in on you, and then that would lead to all sorts of trouble."

"Yeah, that's me. I've actually got three other girls on the side. I'm just really sneaky about it." He collapsed onto his couch. "You know, if you were planning to stop by, you didn't need to owl me back last night."

"I know." She curled up against him. "But I wanted to, in case I - er - forgot to bring it up today."

The smile on his face said that he saw through her excuse, but he didn't challenge her. "Well, my grandmother's looking forward to it. I told her we'd meet her at noon on Sunday."

"Just her, right?" He nodded. "Why's she so keen on meeting me, anyway?"

"Well, you've been going out with her only grandchild for three and a half years. That might have something to do with it." He slipped an arm around her. "I guess at this point she figures you'll probably be around forever."

His tone was casual, but there was something in the way he said that that made Rose feel a little uncomfortable, though at first she had a hard time placing what it was. He'd said things like that before, and she'd been perfectly happy to hear them. After a moment, the difference hit her: when he'd said things like that in the past, he'd tended to use words like 'knows' or 'sees' rather than 'figures.' 'Figures' didn't exactly indicate that _he_felt very confident about the matter.

There was no way to bring it up without coming off as ridiculous, though, especially since there was nothing else in his behavior to suggest that he had any plans to break up with her, and quite a lot to suggest that he didn't.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She smiled at him. "I'm just thinking about you with your clothes off. I got distracted."

He flexed an arm. "Yeah, I'm quite the catch, with my bulging Healer muscles and all. I can see why you'd get distracted."

"It's why I stay with you despite your many affairs with other girls."

He threw his head back and laughed. She ran a finger lightly up his chest, and the laugh ended in a strangled sort of yelp. "Rose -"

She slung her leg over his and kissed his neck. "I love you," she breathed into his ear, and he twitched.

"I love you too," he whispered back. His arms came up to encircle her, and she smiled as she pressed her lips against his. When she pulled away, he brought a hand up to stroke her hair. "Merlin, I love you."

He leaned in for another kiss, and Rose felt herself relax. This definitely wasn't how someone planning to break up with their girlfriend acted. She really was just being paranoid.

An hour later, they were both sprawled across his bed. Rose woke up from her short doze first, but when she tried to get up, his grip around her stomach tightened possessively.

"Scorpius, come on. Let's get up. I'm hungry."

He didn't respond, and when she twisted around, she saw that his eyes were still closed.

"Scorpius, come on," she repeated, nudging him.

This time, he grunted, but there was no other sign that he'd heard her. After another attempt to wake him proved equally unsuccessful, she managed to extract herself from his grasp and leaned over him.

"Scorpius," she tried again. He didn't respond, so she leaned down to press her lips against his.

Not surprisingly, this succeeded where her other attempts had failed - after a moment, he started to kiss her back, and when she opened her eyes, he was smiling. His eyes still weren't open, but he murmured her name, which was certainly further than where she'd been a few minutes before.

"Come on," she said for the third time. "I'm ready for dinner."

His eyes opened a crack. "Oh." He made a face. "All right. I'm getting up."

She perched on the edge of his bed while he hauled himself up and started searching for his trousers. "Why are you so tired, anyway?" she asked. "It's usually not that hard to wake you up."

He put a hand over his mouth to cover a yawn. "I was up late reading a book Noah gave me. I thought I'd just try a chapter or two and then give it back to him and say I read it, but it was actually pretty good."

Rose snickered. Scorpius's cousin Noah had been trying to get both Scorpius and Albus into reading for fun since their first year, but he'd only met with half-hearted encouragement from Albus and sneaky resistance from Scorpius, who had developed a strategy of reading the first two chapters and the last one so he could fake it well enough that Noah would stop bothering him.

"Poor Noah." She arched her back and stretched. "He - what?" Scorpius was staring at her in a very disconcerting way. He raised his eyebrows, and she looked down. "Oh. Er - hand me my shirt, would you?"

He grabbed it off the floor and tossed it to her. "Don't feel like you need to put it on, though. If you want to walk around my flat in your bra, that's fine with me."

"Shut up." She pulled the shirt over her head and ran her fingers through her hair, which had somehow become hopelessly tangled since she'd arrived. "Damnit, Scorpius, how did my hair get this messy?"

He shrugged as he tossed her her trousers. "I like your hair. It's fun to play with." He pulled his shirt on, and she made a face. "Oh, what, you won't walk around topless, but you want me to?"

"You're a boy. It's different."

He rolled his eyes, but after a minute, he tugged the shirt over his head again and tossed it on his bed. "There. Happy?"

"Mm." She wriggled into her trousers and smiled at him. "You always make me happy."

A faint crease appeared between his eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

She threw her arms around his neck, and he stumbled back into the wall. "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

He decided not to navigate that minefield. Instead, he simply gestured toward the door. "Didn't you say you were hungry?"

Unfortunately, neither Rose nor Scorpius had any special talent in the kitchen, though neither of them were half as bad as Albus, whose version of cooking had the potential to cause fatalities. When Scorpius ducked his head into his kitchen, it only took a minute for him to suggest that they order out instead.

"Sure," she said, flopping into his chair. "What do you want? The usual?"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "Oh, come on. We don't order pizza _that_much."

"Yes, we do." She jerked her head toward the door. "You want to go downstairs, or should I?"

The trouble with ordering out was that witches and wizards tended not to have phones. To be fair, telephones _did_ tend to function poorly when magic was around, but there were phones that had been released over a decade ago by a Muggleborn inventor that were spelled especially _not_to do that. Unfortunately, most magical people just didn't see the need for them, including Scorpius, which meant that ordering food required one of them to go downstairs to the lobby.

Scorpius's landlord had figured out years ago that phones were, in fact, very useful.

"I'll do it," he said, ducking into his room to grab his shirt. She stopped herself from commenting on it - it would look odd for him to wander downstairs without a shirt on, and she doubted any explanation that included "My girlfriend likes staring at my bare chest" would help matters.

They ended up having a perfectly enjoyable dinner, and she was just starting to think about leaving when Scorpius asked, "Oh, hey, I was wondering - what are your cousins taking you out to celebrate on Friday?"

Rose stared at him. "I didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

She pushed her hair behind her ears carefully and glanced out the window. "There have been some disappearances near Hogsmeade recently. They think it might be an Erkling, so we're going to check it out."

When she got up the nerve to look back at him, he surprised her with a smile. "Congratulations." He even sounded sincere. "I'm sure you'll be great."

She didn't know why it hit her so strongly just then - it wasn't like Scorpius wasn't usually supportive - but there was something about his reaction that she found extremely comforting. Maybe Albus had been misreading the situation, and she was worrying about nothing.

Her cousin's basic point stood, of course, and she was glad that he'd brought it up. She really did take Scorpius for granted sometimes, and she didn't want that at all. At the same time, Scorpius certainly didn't seem to be suffering from the same sorts of excessive worries and possessiveness that she'd seen several of her cousins' significant others struggle through.

Probably because he had more faith in her and her abilities that James's girlfriends had ever had in his.

"Rose, I don't mean to be repetitive, but are you okay?"

She blinked to refocus on him. "What? Oh, yeah. I was just thinking."

"Oh?"

She leaned forward and kissed him. "I love you."

His face relaxed a little. "You've mentioned."

When she left a little while later, it was just after nine, and she was feeling as light as a feather. She was finally starting work for real, Scorpius didn't seem to be turning into an insane overprotective jerk about it,_and_she had taken the plunge and made plans to meet his grandmother. Now that the lunch was actually set up, she was starting to feel reasonably optimistic about the whole thing. He was right; his grandmother was hardly going to be anything other than pleasant, considering that if she was rude to Rose, she was going to seriously harm her relationship with her grandson.

Her mood was only improved when she arrived home to find her cousin Albus's owl Hazel sharing Godric's perch in her room. As soon as she walked in, Hazel swooped down to sit on Rose's dresser and held out her leg. Rose relieved her of the letter, and after a quick pat, she flew off into the night.

Rose waited until she was wearing her pyjamas and climbing into bed to open the note.

_Rosie,_

_James told me you're going out in the field tomorrow. I hope you find something good to kill and don't land yourself in St. Mungo's._

_I'll take you out to celebrate this weekend._

_Al_

She smiled and put the note on top of Scorpius's from the night before tapping her wand to the light, rolling over, and going to sleep.

It had been absurdly early when she'd fallen asleep - not even ten - but Rose was glad for that when she rolled out of bed the next morning just before seven. The very last thing she needed was to have slow reflexes in the field, especially not with her cousin looking on.

If there was even anything to find.

When she got to work, she was gratified to see that she'd chosen her clothing correctly; Victoire and Dedworth were both similarly clad in dark clothing, and Victoire's hair was carefully pulled back away from her face. Neither of them seemed particularly worried, though for all Rose knew, they always acted like this.

"Ready?" Victoire asked as they headed down the hall to Lavender Brown's office. Rose nodded, and her cousin gave her an encouraging smile as Dedworth knocked and pushed the door open.

"Hey. We're ready to go."

Rose followed him into the office just in time to see Brown (whatever James said, she was still having a hard time thinking of either Van Dedworth or Lavender Brown by their first names) look up. Rose tried to search her face for some indication regarding the nature of her relationship with Dedworth, but she gave up almost immediately: Brown's face was so heavily scarred that Rose probably wouldn't have even been able to distinguish if she was angry or elated.

Lavender Brown glanced over all of them, and her gaze landed on Rose. "Are you ready?" she asked.

It occurred to Rose that this was probably meant to be helpful and supportive - and it was, in a way. It was just also intimidating as hell.

"I think so."

Brown made a face that could have either been a grimace or a smile. Then she jerked her head toward the large fireplace set along the far wall. The flames in it were flickering faintly, and a stand with a large jar of Floo powder stood right in front of it. "It's set up for the rest of the day. If there's a problem -"

"I'll send word," Dedworth finished for her. This was apparently a conversation that he knew well. "I know."

Rose followed Victoire over to the fireplace, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dedworth lean in closer to Brown so she could say something to him in an undertone.

"There's an office in Hogsmeade?" she asked Victoire, dragging her eyes away from the two of them. Openly staring at two of her three direct supervisors seemed like it should probably be avoided, especially since as far as she knew, if there _was_anything going on between the two of them it probably wasn't public for a reason.

"Yes." Her cousin leaned against the woodwork decorating the edges of the fireplace. "Didn't you know?" Rose should her head, and Victoire face took on a bemused expression. "What are they teaching you, then, that takes four months?"

"Dueling." Rose began the fiddle with her wand to have something to do other than glance toward the desk. "What spells you should cast against what creatures. Where the creatures come from and whether they're common here. That sort of thing."

Victoire shrugged. "Well, it's certainly changed since my time."

"What was it like when you joined?"

"Trial by fire." Victoire called over to Dedworth before Rose could ask exactly what she meant. "Van, are we going or aren't we?" Rose followed her cousin's gaze just in time to see Dedworth squeeze Lavender Brown's hand before crossing the room to meet them.

Rose looked away as he neared them. She hoped he hadn't caught her staring. She couldn't think of many conversations that would be more awkward than trying to come up an explanation that make her look like a gossip - or just plain creepy.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded again, and Victoire took a pinch of powder and threw it into the flames. They took on an emerald tinge and roared up as she stepped into the fireplace. "Hogsmeade, D.C.B. office."

Then she was gone.

"You heard what she said?"

Rather than answer, Rose stepped forward to take some powder herself. She threw it into the fire, which had not yet subsided from her cousin's Floo powder, and stepped into the fireplace. The warmth from the eerie magical flames enveloped her, and she closed her eyes. "Hogsmeade, D.C.B. office," she repeated clearly.

She felt a slightly unpleasant lurch in her stomach, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Victoire leaning over a desk in a small, dimly-lit room. Rose stumbled out of the fireplace and slumped against the wall. Floo powder had always been her least favourite way to travel. It was also exceedingly convenient, so she tried to deal with her distaste for it, but given the choice, she would have been happy to never have to deal with Floo powder again.

"Why couldn't we just Apparate?" she asked Victoire as the flames in the fireplace turned green again and Dedworth stepped out.

"You haven't been here before, so you couldn't have Apparated here yourself," Victoire said without looking up. "And anyway, Floo is more convenient. You can't Apparate directly from our floor, you know that."

Rose stopped herself from responding; her cousin had been a little curt in her answer, but the last thing she wanted was for Victoire - who had gone out of her way to get Rose put with her this year - to feel like she needed to wear kid gloves around Rose because she was too sensitive. Rose didn't like coming across that way, anyway, and she knew that Victoire had no patience for it.

"So why is there a D.C.B. office in Hogsmeade, anyway?"

Dedworth answered her first. "Well, you know the Forbidden Forest?" When she answered in the affirmative, he grinned. "There's a reason it's forbidden, you know."

"Really?"

Victoire snorted as she folded up the piece of paper she'd been examining and pocketed it. "No, not really. The Forbidden Forest is part of it, but the bigger issue is that magical creatures are attracted to magic. Hogsmeade is full of magic. Hence..." She trailed off.

Rose glanced around the room again. It was dark, and it had a dingy, downtrodden feel to it. The lone desk and rickety old chair sitting next to it indicated that it wasn't used very often, especially since the desk appeared to be covered in a layer of dust.

"Where are we?"

Now her cousin managed to crack a smile. "Guess."

"Er -" Rose glanced toward the small window. She couldn't really get a decent glimpse of the outside around the side of the building from her position, but the large crack in it tugged at her memory. "Hold on, is this the Shrieking Shack?"

"Yep." Dedworth cocked his head to the side. "Any more questions?"

The offer seemed to be genuine, so after a moment of hesitation, Rose decided to ask about the other thing that had been bothering her.

"I was wondering something." He raised his eyebrows when she paused and motioned for her to continue. "Well, if someone is missing, why did we put this off? Why didn't we come immediately?"

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Not a pleasant question."

"No," she agreed. "It isn't, is it?"

Dedworth looked back at her. "Because Magical Law Enforcement has swept the area, multiple times. If she left of her own volition - it's possible, apparently she was having a secret affair with the clerk in Honeydukes - any trace from her is going to be long gone. If it was a dark wizard, either they'd have found her already or they won't find her at all." Rose shivered; she remembered stories she'd heard from her father and uncles about bodies being transfigured into bones and buried so as to leave no trace. "And if it was an Erkling, or even something else, she'll be dead by now. They tend not to let their prey live for very long, especially not when they've been cheated out of children."

"Oh." Both Dedworth and Victoire were scrutinising her; they appeared to be wondering whether she was about to lose her nerve.

But Rose Weasley was made of much stronger stuff than that.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

The exited through a door that Victoire carefully closed behind them. When Rose glanced back, however, all she could she was a solid wall with a stationary old portrait with chipped paint on it.

She followed Victoire and Dedworth down the stairs, and before leaving the shack, they all cast Disillusionment Charms on themselves. As soon as they'd cleared the area surrounding the shack, however, both the senior D.C.B. members lifted theirs, and Rose followed suit. "Why -"

"Well, if one of us gets attacked, we want to know it, don't we?"

"Oh." Rose followed them as they made their way toward the forest that still shrouded the outskirts of Hogsmeade in a creepy sort of aura. She had a brief moment of wondering why they ever allowed students out if Hogsmeade could be so dangerous, but by the time they reached the house the woman had disappeared from, her confusion had vanished. No student had come this way on a Hogsmeade visit - she was sure of that. And if magical creatures ever stalked Hogsmeade, she couldn't imagine why they would go into the center of the town to do it if there were these more isolated outskirts to take advantage of.

Dedworth glanced into the forest and then turned to them and lowered his voice. "All right. Magical Law Enforcement's big problem is that they don't know how how to be quiet," he said in an undertone. "Not quiet enough to surprise an Erkling, at any rate. So in the forest, you need to avoid making noise." Rose nodded to show the she understood, and he glanced at Victoire. "You know the drill. Stay within shouting distance."

"What about me?" Rose asked.

"You stay with three metres of me at all times."

Unfortunately, it appeared that Dedworth was going to take this training thing pretty seriously. She agreed without complaint, though - she didn't want to get a reputation for wasting time like that.

They headed into the forest, and she made sure she stuck near him. James had ignored that directive on his second time in the field the year before, and he'd been benched for almost a month and subjected to a long lecture.

The layer of snow that covered the ground made it easier to step softly, so Rose tried to concentrate on the sounds of the forest. It was eerily quiet, but she was having a hard time distinguishing anything from the rustling of the trees in the light breeze sweeping through the forest.

They hadn't even been picking their way through the thick of trees for ten minutes when Dedworth held up his hand. She stopped immediately, and he jerked his head toward the right. She followed his gaze, and through the sunlight filtering through the trees, she saw a short and exceedingly ugly creature with veins that popped out from beneath its dark green skin even from this distance. It was bending over a body, and after a moment, it seemed to sense their presence, because it looked up and from beneath a bloody muzzle, it bared its long, serrated teeth.

* * *

_A/N: Huge thanks to emzie1326, yellow 14, mspstar97, Matt, scruffyreader7, Lizzy0308, and BoredomBusters for their lovely reviews on chapter 3. They were very appreciated. :) Thanks as well to everyone else who's reviewed previous chapters, favourited, added to their alerts, or just read - I appreciate the support, and I hope you're continuing to like the story._

scruffyreader7 - This is definitely not the last you'll see of Albus and Bridget. I love writing about Albus and relationships. I have a one-shot about (this) Albus falling on his face when people ask him out - if readers are interested, I'd be happy to post it, since it's not currently on .

As always, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on the chapter, even if it's as simple as "Great chapter" or "Oh, serrated teeth, that sounds doubleplusungood." (Sorry for the 1984 reference - it was just begging for a mention.)

Beeezie


	5. St Mungo's Healers

Rose raised her wand, but Dedworth was faster.

"Stupefy!"

The creature let out a shrill squeal and dodged away from the jet of red light, which set off sparks when it hit a tree trunk. The creature turned and began running on all fours toward the woods, and Dedworth took after it.

Rose was following him when he yelled, "Check her!" He waved his free hand vaguely toward the body on the ground as he sped into the trees. She heard him calling out to her cousin as she came to a stop beside the body - apparently, the three metre rule was no longer in effect.

She looked down at the person lying on the ground and felt a chill run down her spine. Rose was no stranger to monsters, but she'd never been this close to someone who'd been ravaged by one before, at least not before they'd been patched up some in St. Mungo's.

The body belonged to a young woman - she probably wasn't much older than Victoire. Her face was oddly untouched other than a few small scratches and some dirt, but the rest of her body was a mess. There were rips and holes in her dress that Rose somehow suspected hadn't been there before she'd ventured out into the forest, and judging by the sharp, violent little incisions crisscrossing the skin visible beneath them and the blood seeping into the ground around her, they'd interrupted the Erkling in the middle of a feast.

Rose couldn't help but wonder what it had done to lure the woman into the forest.

She knelt down and mechanically put two fingers on the woman's neck. With the obvious severity of the injuries, she wasn't really expecting much, and she was just pulling her hand away again when she thought she felt a faint beat.

Keeping an eye out for the Erkling's return - or some other magical beast that smelled an easy meal - she doubled her attention as she pressed her fingers back.

This time, she was sure of it - that was a heartbeat.

She glanced toward the forest. She could faintly hear Dedworth and Victoire yelling, but she couldn't quite make out their words. She considered calling out as loud as she could - when she was really trying, Rose's voice could definitely travel - but she didn't want to risk distracting them. Erklings weren't the worst of the worst, but still, they shouldn't be taken lightly - the Ministry rated them as XXXX, and she knew that they could do quite as much damage as a manticore when they set their minds to it... or when someone underestimated them.

The evidence was right in front of her.

The woman's heart gave a very faint throb again, and Rose rocked back on her heels. If only she had Scorpius here. He would know what to do.

He might still be in training, but he was good at what he did - really good. Between his Outstandings in his N.E.W.T.s in Potions, Charms, and Healing, and his generally cool-headed demeanor even in the face of a real crisis, St. Mungo's had been ecstatic to take him on. If he was here, he'd probably have the woman stable (if not completely Healed) within a few minutes.

Unfortunately, the woman didn't have Scorpius. She had Rose, and Rose was not very good at saving people. She was good at fighting, but she could barely close a cut, let alone mend the sort of injuries that this woman had sustained.

"Damnit." Rose stood and took a step back, trying to recall everything Scorpius had ever said about Healing. He'd spoken about it with increasingly frequency over the last few years, and Rose had tried to pay attention. She really had.

However, when he started going on about specifics, she'd often ended up finding herself distracted by his eyes or his smile or thinking about what his hands could be doing to her instead of gesturing wildly about how tricky this incantation was or how this spell would replace lost blood but also force a miscarriage if the witch it was used on was pregnant or...

If he was here...

But he wasn't, and the blood was still seeping steadily out of the woman's wounds. She didn't have a lot of time.

From the squeals that had started to echo out of the forest, Victoire and Dedworth had tracked the Erkling and were currently fighting it. She definitely didn't want to risk distracting one of them, though she knew that both were much better at basic Healing spells than she was.

In general, Rose would have just sat guard over the dying woman and waited for them to get back, but she was more than a little worried that if she didn't do something now the woman wouldn't last to get real help.

She heard a crack in the bushes behind her, but when she spun around, she didn't see anything there. This was not entirely comforting to her: if a rabbit had hopped out from behind the tree or a bird had taken flight, she would have known what had caused the sound.

As it stood, she didn't know, but she couldn't leave the body to go investigate. It could be nothing. It could be a trap. Hell, even if it _was_ nothing, there might be some other creature, quietly waiting in the woods for an opportune moment. Rose didn't know all the things that lurked in the forest off Hogsmeade, but the woman had lost so much blood that anything with a halfway decent sense of smell would be flocking to this area. From the cracks and the shrill screaming she could hear in the distance, Victoire and Dedworth still had the Erkling occupied. She briefly wondered why they hadn't killed it yet, but while it seemed like an eternity had passed since she realised that the woman was alive and that she needed to do something _now,_it was probably only a couple minutes.

Rose shuffled around the body so she was facing the direction of the forest. It was too shrouded in shadows for her to see if there was anything peering out at her, but at least this way if there was she wouldn't be taken unaware.

She sighed and steeled herself before leaning down and pointed her wand at what looked like one of the worst of the woman's many wounds. _"Sanores,"_she whispered, and the flesh immediately started to come back together. It stopped about two-thirds of the way there, which wasn't ideal, but at least she'd remembered it and it had worked.

Sort of.

That turned out to be her best effort; she ended up needing several tries each to close up the major wounds most of the way, and she had no luck in stopping the blood that still leaked out from several, though at least the wounds it was leaking out of were smaller and it was flowing more slowly.

The noises from Victoire and Dedworth's battle with the Erkling had died down, and Rose hoped it meant they were on their way back - she was completely out of her depth.

There was another crack from the bushes, and she jumped. At this point she was clenching her wand so tightly that her knuckles were white.

She was so focused on the part of the woods she'd heard the crack from that she didn't process the footsteps behind her until she felt a sharp pain on her back. She spun around just as a stunner hit what looked like a smaller Erkling in the head. It fell against her back with a thud, and she winced as the pain from the scratches intensified. When she jerked her head around, she saw Dedworth standing about ten metres away. His wand was outstretched, but he looked calm and in control.

"I -" Rose started, though she had no idea what she was going to say.

"I'd be a pretty poor leader if I let you get hurt on your first real field assignment, wouldn't I?" He jerked his head toward the woman lying on the ground as Victoire emerged from the trees hauling the prone body of the Erkling they'd been chasing over her shoulder. "What's this?"

Rose looked back at the woman. She'd been momentarily distracted, but now it was rushing back. "She's alive. She needs help."

Dedworth didn't quite run toward them, but he was at kneeling at her side in a matter of seconds and pressing his fingers to the woman's neck. "Was she conscious when you stopped?" Rose shook her head. "I take it her wounds were bigger than this when we got here?"

"Yes. I - I tried to make them smaller, but I didn't do a very good job."

"You did fine." He looked up at Victoire, who had just tossed the Erkling she'd had onto a pile with the other one. "Vic, we need to take her in _now."_

"I'll stay." Victoire brushed a few stray hairs back from her face and rubbed the back of her neck. "Somebody needs to watch these things until they can be collected, and I don't fancy leaving Rosie to it."

"Right." Dedworth looked up at Rose. "Grab onto me. I'm going to use the Portkey."

Rose grabbed onto his shoulder as he pulled a small bottle engraved with the words "St. Mungo's" in gold letters. She couldn't see the cork, but she knew that the letters "D.C.B." were etched into the top.

Ministry divisions that frequently had to deal with injuries - either in civilians or among their own ranks - were all required to carry at least one of these little bottles per group every time they went out in the field, for occasions just like this.

Dedworth pulled the cork out and grabbed hold of the woman's shoulder, and Rose closed her eyes. She didn't mind traveling by Portkey as much as she minded Floo powder, but it did tend to leave her a little disoriented if she didn't close her eyes. She felt the familiar twinge in her stomach, and when the sounds of the eerie quiet of the forest had been replaced by a low murmur of voices, she opened her eyes again.

They were in a quiet, isolated room. The shelves lining the adjacent wall were filled with a large variety of potions, and a large sign on the opposing wall said, _Welcome to St. Mungo's Emergency Ward for the Ministry of Magic. We hope you enjoy your stay._

Dedworth was already up and calling out to the Mediwitch sitting at a desk to the left of the door. Before Rose could process what he was saying, the witch tapped the hourglass sitting on the desk with her wand and hurried over to where the victim was still lying motionless on the cool wooden floor.

"Do you know anything about her?" the Mediwitch asked as she knelt down and waved her wand over the woman.

A silvery blue mist descended over them as Dedworth answered, "Victim of an Erkling attack. We found her near Hogsmeade. That's all I know."

The Mediwitch nodded and waved her wand again. The mist vanished. Rose had no idea what she'd learned from the spell, but when two Healers rushed through the door next to the desk a moment later, she looked decisive when she gave them a quick summary of the woman's condition. The Healers immediately carted her through a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere next to the sign on the wall, and Rose sagged against the wall with relief. She liked being responsible for killing things, not saving them.

"Is she going to be okay?"

The Mediwitch finished vanishing the blood off her robes and looked over at Rose. "We'll see."

Rose did not find this exactly comforting, but Dedworth nudged her before she could decide whether she wanted to press the witch further. "They never like to commit to an answer. Don't waste your time."

"Oh." She let herself slide down the wall. "Now we wait?"

He joined her on the floor and cracked his neck. Rose managed to stop herself from wincing, though just barely - the sound of people cracking their body parts had always made her twitch. "Now we wait," he agreed. "I do, anyway. If you'd like to go home, you can."

Rose stared at him. "And not know what happened and whether she's okay?"

A small smile spread across his lips. "That's what I thought." He glanced over at the door the woman had been taken through. "If she makes it, though, you don't have to stick around for the interview."

"Oh, it's okay. I'd like to."

Dedworth cleared his throat. "All right, what I meant was that you _shouldn't_ stick around for the interview." Rose's initial confusion almost immediately turned into shame and unhappiness - she _knew_she hadn't done well. He must have read it on her face, because he hurried to add, "No, Rose, that's not what I meant. When someone's been through an attack, the fewer people there are talking to them the better, and you're not experienced enough yet to ask the right questions."

Rose looked down at her knees. Whatever he said, she couldn't help but feel like she should have done a better job. Before the guilt overwhelmed her, she said, "I'm sorry I didn't do better." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but thankfully, he heard it. She wasn't sure whether she could have repeated it.

"What are you talking about?" She didn't lift her gaze from her knees, and out of the corner of her eye she could see him scrutinising her. "Rose, you did a great job."

"I'm not very good at Healing spells. I should have practised more. I just didn't think..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry."

Dedworth snorted and let his head fall back against the wall. "Well, I'm so bad at cleaning spells half the time I have to do it by hand. Everybody's got a weak point." He kept his tone light when he changed the subject. "Look, Rose, you did what you were supposed to do. You listened to me and knew what I wanted you to do without my having to spell it out. You accessed the situation and came up with a solution. You implemented it as well as you could." He shrugged. "Nobody expects you to be a Healer. If she survives, it's thanks to you. If not, it's not your fault. Okay?"

She nodded tentatively.

"Rose, _you did a good job_. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true."

Rose finally dragged her eyes up to meet his. "Thanks." She glanced up at the Mediwitch, who was back at her desk and seemed to be ignoring them. She had the air of someone who was quite accustomed to having people in dire need of medical assistance appear out of nowhere. "Who is she? The woman from the forest, I mean?"

"We won't know until we talk to her or do some more investigating. Seamus'll have people scanning the area and talking to neighbors before the end of the day. I have my suspicions, but we'll see."

"Oh."

"Hey, why don't you take off tomorrow?"

Rose whirled her head around. "What? No, I'm fine. I -"

He held up a hand. "I know you're fine. It's procedure to give younger employees a day off after a fight. Just take it and be grateful. I never get days off."

"Not even weekends?"

He smiled again. "Occasionally, but not often."

"That's..." Rose searched for an appropriate word and came up short. "Awful."

"It's fine." He glanced over at the door again, but there was no sign that anyone was about to bustle through to give them news. "There are only a few people who've been there longer than me, and two of them have families. I don't. I don't mind, really."

He really looked as though he didn't mind, which was something that Rose didn't understand, no matter how much she liked her job.

"Oh. All right, then."

They continued to talk on and off for the next few hours, during which Rose discovered that Dedworth really wasn't as intimidating as she'd initially felt. She might even start feeling like she could call him Van.

Eventually.

Then a Healer slipped inside the room so quietly that Rose almost didn't see him. "She should make it," he said as Rose and Dedworth both scrambled up. "We'll see about longterm damage, but she should survive. Who tried to close her wounds?"

"Me."

The Healer smiled at her. "Not bad for field work from the D.C.B. I've seen a lot worse from your division." Rose had no idea what worse could look like - she was pretty damned terrible - but then the Healer added, "You probably saved her life."

Rose felt a faint glow settle over her. "Oh. Good."

He nodded to both of them and disappeared through the door again.

"Get going," Dedworth told her. "Great job today."

"What are you going to do?"

He slid back onto the floor. "Wait until they tell me more. Go on, Vic'll be here soon. She's probably just been briefing Seamus and showing them the site where it happened."

Rose was not at all sure that he was telling the truth, but before she could say anything, the door opened again. However, this time, she recognised the person entering the room, and before she could think about the blood on her clothing or whether doing so would be slightly unprofessional, she threw her arms around him. "Scorpius!"

He didn't appear to care about the blood or looking unprofessional, either, because he returned the hug with equal fervour. "Hey, sweetie. I heard you did a good job today."

"That's what they tell me, but I think they're just trying to make me feel better."

Her boyfriend looked past her to where Dedworth was sitting on the ground, not even bothering to hide the amusement on his face. "Did she do a good job?"

"She did a great job," her boss confirmed. "Now she needs to go home. Rookies get time off after they kill things or save lives. We like to get our claws into them really tight before we burn them out."

Rose giggled, and Scorpius looked down at her. "Well, I'm done for the day," he said. "I can take you home, if you like."

"You're _done?"_

"I'm done," he confirmed. "Remember how I've been saying all week that I need to be up by 6am so I had to get to sleep early?" She nodded. "Well, when you're here before 7, they tend to let you go earlier."

"What time is it?"

"About 3:30. I'd usually be leaving at 4 or 4:30, but that woman you brought in was..." He stopped for a moment. "Well, I didn't eat lunch, so my boss told me to take my girlfriend and go home."

Rose looked over at Van. Suddenly all of her hesitance had melted away. "I'll - er - I'll just go home, then."

He snorted. "Have fun."

She suggested stopping to get something to eat before they went back to Scorpius's place, but he pointed out that the blood on her clothing probably wouldn't be well-received. She'd ended up hopping in his shower to rub the dirt and blood off her skin, and after they'd both put on some clean clothing, he treated them to what was either an early dinner or a very late lunch at a little cafe in Diagon Alley.

By the time they got back to his place, the sky was getting dark, and she was quite happy to flop onto his exceedingly comfortable bed. One of the perks of staying with Scorpius for the night was that his bed was a lot better than hers.

After he'd tapped a light with his wand, he let himself fall onto the bed next to her. As soon as he was there, he leaned in for a kiss that she immediately deepened. He slid a hand up the back of her shirt, and when he began to run his fingers lightly over her skin, she shivered. She could feel his lips break into a smile.

Suddenly, he pulled away. She tried to follow him, but he shook his head. "Does it hurt when I do this?" He ran his fingers along her back again, and now that she wasn't distracted, she winced. "I'll take that as a yes."

"I'm okay," she insisted and leaned back in.

"Um, no." He moved his knee up to block her, and she let out an exasperated breath. "Come on, lay on your stomach." He clearly noticed her reluctance as she turned around, because he caught her arms and brushed his lips against the side of her neck. "It'll only take a minute," he said. His voice was low, and something in his tone sent a pleasurable shudder through her body.

He pulled off her shirt before coaxing her into laying down, and once she was there, she rested her head on her hands and turned it toward him. "What's wrong?"

Scorpius ran his hands up her lower back. His touch was as a light as a feather, and she let out a contented sigh as he unhooked her bra. "You've got a few scratches and a really nasty bruise."

"Oh, that?" She made to get up. "I'll be fine."

He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her down again. "Yeah, you would be, but it might be a little inconvenient tonight."

Rose felt a smile creep across her face. "Oh, so you don't want to think about avoiding that spot?"

"Not particularly." He grabbed his wand from his bedside table. "It'll only take a few minutes, I promise."

She closed her eyes as he waved it over her back and muttered something. An odd sensation began to spread across her upper back - it felt like a faint breeze, though at this time of year, Scorpius kept all his windows closed - as he clambered off the bed and over to his desk.

"Don't move," he warned from across the room.

"I won't."

When he rejoined her a moment later, he was unscrewing a jar of something. Once the top was off, he put it down and dipped the tips of his fingers into whatever was inside. A faint smell of lavender filled the air, and she breathed it in happily.

"What's that?"

He leaned down to kiss her left shoulder, and then he laid his hands on her back. She let out a gasp - they were pleasantly cool and felt almost like mist on a rainy day. "Just something to help the bruising." He rubbed the cream into her back gently, and she let out a whimper.

"Are you sure it's not just there to turn me on?" She heard him give a soft snort of laughter. "Because that's what it's - ah - doing." He trailed his fingertips down her back, and sucked in her breath. "Scorpius -"

"Yes?" He began to run his hands along the rest of her back. Most of the strange cream was currently sitting below her left shoulder, but as he moved his hands, his touch left her skin tingling slightly.

It was absolutely heavenly, and the ache in her back had already almost disappeared. "What _is_that stuff, and where can I get some?"

He put the lid back on the jar and reached over her to place both it and his wand on his bedside table. "Special Healer ointment, and you can get it here." She twisted her head up to look at him, and he grinned at the impatience on her face. "It's not really available to the public. People have a tendency to misuse it. You can only get it from a Healer."

"Oh." She let her head fall back down onto her hands and sighed. "I guess it's good that I have my own special Healer, isn't it?"

"Mm." He collapsed next to her. "Just lay there for another couple minutes to let the cream soak in. It shouldn't take long."

She inched over so she could rest her head on his leg. After a moment, she felt his fingers starting to comb through her hair, and she let out a contented sigh. "So do all your patients get this turned on when you use that cream on them? Should I be worried?"

Scorpius let out a chuckle. "No, it's typically a lot more professional than that. Among other things, I usually don't apply it to half-naked girls in my bed so their bruises from work don't get in the way of our fun."

Rose let her eyes drift closed. "You're my favourite Healer ever."

"Just your favourite Healer? I'm hurt."

She nuzzled her face into his leg. "You're also my favourite Slytherin and the best boyfriend ever."

"Oh, good." He pulled his hand away and she heard a soft rustle of clothing before his shirt landed at the end of the bed. "I love you," he whispered, beginning to run his fingers lightly up her back again. She stiffened, and he began to trail them back down.

Rose's back had always been very sensitive to the sort of light, trailing touch he was using right now, and it was taking all of her self control not to grab her boyfriend and strip him completely naked.

This desire dissipated somewhat when he took advantage of her inability to really move by reaching down her side and tickling her. When she recoiled involuntarily, he laughed and pulled her back toward him.

"Don't be a jerk." She couldn't quite manage to keep the laugh out of her voice.

"Oh, am I being a jerk?" He edged his body over to hers, and after a moment she felt the warmth of his skin pressing against her side. "I didn't mean to be a jerk." He bent down to kiss her right shoulder, and when he moved his lips up to bite softly on her neck, his left hand began creeping up her back again. "I am so, so sorry," he breathed in her ear, and she twitched. "Can you ever forgive me for it?"

Now his hand was reaching around her left side, and when he started to run his fingers lightly along the side off her breast, she let out a moan. "Scorpius..."

His other hand swept her hair off her neck, and after a moment of anticipation, she felt his lips there. "I love the way you smell," he murmured.

Rose's entire body was tingling at the point, and it had nothing to do with any potion or cream. "Scorpius, can I turn over now?"

He nipped at her earlobe gently before pulling away. "Oh, that? Yeah, you were good a few minutes ago. I just liked having you at my mercy."

Rose rolled onto her shoulder and brought her gaze up to meet her boyfriend's broad grin. "You _are_a jerk."

He gave a shrug of acknowledgment and then reached out to pull her closer. "And yet somehow, I think that you'll probably forgive me for that, too." He put a hand behind her neck and leaned in for a kiss. She immediately deepened it and pressed her body against his. "Thought so," he said when they broke away. She kissed him again, and this time, he reached down as he returned the kiss to unbutton her trousers. "Now, do you really need these?"

She grinned and lifted up her hips up so she could slide them off. "Do you need yours?" she shot back. She tossed hers onto the floor and was going to unbutton his when he caught her wrists.

"Wha -"

He cut her off by leaning down and kissing her. It was hungry and passionate, and Rose found herself responding without really processing anything but the feel of his lips against hers. He let go of her wrists and slid one hand down to rest over her knickers and the other around her back to pull her closer. She wound her arms around his neck and let her legs get tangled in his as he rolled her onto her back.

"I love you," she managed to get out when they came up for breath. "What was that about?"

He smiled and brushed a few stray hairs back from her face. "It has to be something more than, 'I love my girlfriend and I can't keep my hands off of her?'"

"Well, when you put it that way..." She reached up to brush her lips against his one more time. "Come on. You're overdressed, and your girlfriend wants more than your hands on her."

That made him laugh. She was perfectly okay with that, since he also heeded her suggestion immediately.

"So," he said later that evening. They were sitting in his kitchen while he made a pot of tea. "Is that what you're going to be like after every day in the field?"

Rose smiled into her empty mug. "I dunno. Probably not." She glanced up at him. "Disappointed?"

He shook his head. There was a small smile gracing his lips as well - he seemed quite as satisfied and happy as she was. "Nah. I think if we did that every night I'd die before I turned forty." He glanced over at her. "D'you want to stay over tonight? I have work tomorrow, but I'd love to have you."

"Haven't you already had me?" He let out a snort of laughter, and when the kettle whistled, he reached over to grab her mug. "Yeah, I'll stay. But do you really have to work tomorrow?"

He gave her her mug and sank into the chair across from her, holding a cup of his own. "Well, yes, Rose. I don't get time off just because my girlfriend does."

"But this is special. It was my first time ever out in the field."

She was expecting him to roll his eyes and tell her that it was a nice effort on her part but he just couldn't do it. She was therefore quite taken aback when he sighed. "All right. This once, if anyone is willing to switch 'Emergency Sting and Bite' shifts with me."

"Wait, really?"

He let the silence drag out as he stared at her body. She shifted when his gaze lingered at her chest, and then he dragged it back up to her face. "Yeah," he said. He looked like he was trying to hold back a smile; if that was the case, he was failing miserably. "Just this once. I'll go ask around before it gets too late." On his way to the fireplace, he stopped by her chair and ran his fingers through her hair. "It really can't happen much, though."

"I know." Rose got to her feet, rose up on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you," she murmured. Then she pressed her lips against his with enough force that he groaned and practically lifted her off her feet. He found the chair she'd just vacated by groping haphazardly behind him, and he sank into it without pulling away.

When she moved down to his neck, his already ragged breathing became more frantic. "Rose - ahhh - stop it for a second."

"Why?"

"Well, I've been thoroughly convinced, but I still need to find someone to cover for me."

She considered that for a minute before pulling away. "Oh."

"And I'd also prefer not to be quite as obvious about why I'm asking as I'm sure it is right now."

Rose examined him once she'd gotten to her feet. His breathing was still heavy, his hair was quite messy, and when he looked over at her she could see that his eyes were still glassy and a little unfocused. He also had faint scratches on his arms and a love bite forming at the bottom of his neck, but those were both easy enough to cover up with a different shirt.

"How bad is it?"

"Not at all." He raised his eyebrows at her, and she reached out to flatten his hair. "Okay, now it's not at all."

"Liar." He ran a hand through his hair again to try and straighten it out. In truth, her efforts hadn't made much difference, and his did little better. His breathing was slowly returning to normal, but she didn't think there was anything to be done about the expression on his face.

"Scorpius, you're fighting a losing battle. Anyone who sees you is going to know exactly what you've been doing and why you're asking them to switch with you."

He made a face. "Yeah, I was afraid of that. I guess it doesn't really matter. It's just a little awkward." He got to his feet and approached the fireplace. Rose hung back and wrapped her arms around herself. She was suddenly feeling both awkward and slightly chilly. He glanced back at her as he knelt down. "You cold?" She nodded, and he jerked his head toward the door. "You should go get a sweater. We might be here awhile."

She decided to take his advice, though she suspected that his primary motivation for suggesting it was to get her out of the room before the inevitable teasing started. She took her time about rummaging through his drawer to find a sweater, and by the time she reemerged, he was exiting the kitchen looking a little annoyed.

"Rebecca said she couldn't because she's got tickets to a Quidditch match." He glanced toward the door and grimaced. "Guess I'll go ask Sawyer."

Sawyer Ackerly lived just a few doors down from Scorpius, and Rose didn't understand why he hadn't just gone to Sawyer in the first place. They'd been friends for most of their time in Hogwarts. When she mentioned this as he was rummaging around for a different shirt, however, he laughed.

"Sawyer will tease me a lot more." Sure enough, Rose overheard a fair amount of teasing - which included several lewd comments - through the open door before her boyfriend returned, shaking his head. "We're good, but Sawyer's a real dick sometimes."

"I heard."

He collapsed onto the couch next to her. "Just this once, though," he said for what Rose felt had to be the tenth time in the past twenty minutes. "I really can't make a habit of it."

"Mm." She curled up against him. "So where were we?"

He looked at her for a moment before another grin broke across his face. "Just about here," he said, pulling her into his lap and running his hands up the inside of the oversized sweater she'd just put on.

"Hey, Scorpius?"

He pulled back. "What?"

She smiled at him. "I love you."

He grinned back. "I love you, too, Rose." He glanced toward his open bedroom door. "At risk of sounding immature... race you? Loser makes breakfast."

It took her a moment to process that, but once she had, she was scrambling over the back of the couch.

Rose was not fond of making breakfast.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks to LillyMay77, yellow 14, Honey Badger7437, lintymae, ana, kariba, and manamiietude for their lovely reviews on chapter 4. They were greatly appreciated. :) Thanks as well to everyone else who's reviewed previous chapters, favourited, added to their alerts, or just read - I appreciate the support, and I hope you're continuing to like the story!_

_Couple days early on the update, but... whatever. I'm bad at schedules._

_As always, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about the chapter, even if they're as simple as "Great chapter."_

Next up: Rose meets Narcissa.

_Beeezie_


	6. Meeting Narcissa Malfoy

Victoire had ended up owling Rose to tell her that she and Teddy had plans for the weekend, but that she really was very proud and would find some way to celebrate next week. Therefore, Rose and Scorpius ended up meeting up with James and Albus instead. To Rose's considerable relief, neither James nor Albus made any jokes about what exactly she and Scorpius had been doing for the past twenty-four hours, though judging from the look Albus shot his best friend, it was clear that he, at least, was aware that Scorpius had switched shifts so he didn't have to work that day. How Albus knew that was beyond her, but Albus always seemed to know these things.

A major advantage in going out with your cousin's best friend was that he typically felt too awkward to really tease either of them. Albus wasn't really the sort to seriously tease, anyway, not really, but he wasn't above occasionally mocking his brother or several of their cousins about their love lives, and Rose was just as happy that he avoided it with her.

They'd just finished their first drinks, and as James and Scorpius made their way up to the bar to get another round, Albus leaned across the table. "So, be honest. How was it?"

His voice was low enough that the people at the neighboring table couldn't hear him, and Rose followed his example. "Amazing. You'll _love_being out in the field. I promise."

A wide grin spread across his face. "Thought so. Did you really save a woman's life, or was Scorpius just talking you up?"

"I dunno. They said I did."

Before Albus could say anything else, James and Scorpius returned. They were each carrying two glasses. When Rose tried to give Scorpius the sickles to pay for hers, he waved her off. She was about to object when he said, "No, Rose, I didn't pay for it."

She looked down at the glass. A faint wisp of smoke was rising up from the firewhiskey, and the words, "Good job yesterday" glowed across the surface of the liquid before vanishing. She looked over at the bar and saw Dedworth sitting there with one of his sisters. He raised his glass to her, and she grinned.

"Who's that?" Albus asked.

She looked back at him. "What? Oh, just my boss."

Albus glanced toward the bar again. "That's the famous Van Dedworth, huh? Vic never mentioned that he was - er - fit." Rose raised her eyebrows at him, and he rolled his eyes. "Well, he is. If I was Teddy, I'd be jealous, with how much she goes on about him."

"Please. He's like ten years older than her." From his expression, Albus did not seem to think this mattered much, so Rose added, "And anyway, he's - he's got his own - er - girlfriend. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"He makes your relationship with Bridget look normal."

A faint tinge appeared on her cousin's cheeks, but he didn't deny that he was in a relationship with Bridget. For him, that was definite progress. "Who with?"

Rose felt awkward answering the question, but James didn't seem to have any trouble spilling the latest gossip. "One of the heads of the division. Lavender."

"Isn't she the one with all the scars?" Rose shrugged, and Albus stole another look at the bar. Dedworth was now completely absorbed in conversation with his sister and didn't appear to notice. "That's... odd." Rose shrugged again, and Albus moved his attention onto Scorpius. "So, Scorpius, are you feeling a little jealous?"

Scorpius either didn't notice or chose to ignore the smile on Albus's face. "I might, if he wasn't about twenty years older than us. As it stands, no." He grinned. "And anyway, Rose made me feel very appreciated last night. I'm not going to be feeling jealous of anyone for awhile."

James let out a loud bark of laughter. "Appreciated, huh?"

Rose looked over at her boyfriend. He was wearing a smug smile on his face. "Very." She shoved him gently, and he leaned over to her cheek. "Love you."

She wrinkled her nose at his tone. It was sickeningly sweet, and it was clear from the smirk on his face that it was completely intentional. "So I was thinking that tonight, I wanted the solitude of my own bed."

His tone changed back to something approaching normal immediately. "And I'm done."

"Thank you."

The four of them fell into conversation that, thankfully, had nothing to do with anyone's love life (or lack thereof). Albus, however, kept shooting curious glances toward the bar until Dedworth got up and left, and while Rose was enjoying the current conversation berating various public officials to interrupt it, she made a note to ask him about it later.

Rose _had_been planning to follow Scorpius back to his flat for the evening, but as the boys started making plans to go back to the Potters' flat, she realised that what she really wanted was the comfort of her own bed.

"Hey." She caught Scorpius's hand before he could follow James and Albus toward the door. "I think I'm just going to head home. I could use some alone time."

"Sure." He didn't look especially surprised. "Want me to stop by tomorrow for a few hours?"

She nodded, and he squeezed her hand and smiled. "Love you."

Rose let him pull her into a hug. "I love you, too," she said as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm just a little tired."

"Understandable." He pulled back and opened the door for her. "I can have that effect." She let out a snort. "You're still up for lunch with my grandmother, right?"

For about half a second, Rose considered taking advantage of the opening, but she quashed the thought before it could really take hold; somehow, she had the feeling that telling him she would and then taking it back would be a mistake. "Of course not. Don't be silly."

The relief on his face told her that she'd made the right decision. "Oh. Good."

Rose was even more tired than she'd realised; she'd had vague thoughts about stopping in to talk to Lucy, who she hadn't talked to since before fieldwork, but although she saw light through the crack at the bottom of her cousin's room, the sight of her own ajar bedroom door was too inviting.

She'd catch up with Lucy tomorrow.

She slipped inside her room and pulled the door shut. It gave a quiet click behind her as she stepped out of her shoes. The faintest light from the street lamps outside was filtering in through her curtains, and she pointed her wand at her bedside table. The orb sitting on it brightened into a soft glow, and she began to get ready for bed.

She woke up the next morning to a delicious smell wafting under her bedroom door. A quick glance over at the clock hanging on the wall told her that it was just past 9, which meant that she'd been sleeping for about 10 hours. Despite that, she didn't feel especially inspired to get up, which was why she was still laying in bed staring up at her ceiling when Lucy knocked on the door 15 minutes later.

"I'm awake," she called out. "Come in."

Lucy poked her head inside. "Hey. I'm making breakfast, if you want it."

"Mm." Rose raised herself up onto her elbows. "That sounds amazing." The smell was even stronger now that her door was open, and she took a deep breath. "That smells amazing."

Lucy grinned. "Thought you might say that. It should be ready in 10." She disappeared and closed the door behind her, and Rose fell back onto her pillow.

Living with the nicest Weasley cousin apart from _maybe_Albus definitely had its advantages.

Rose emerged from her room just as Lucy was piling two plates with pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs.

"Thanks." She slid into one of the chairs and began to dig in. "Luce, you're my favorite cousin."

"No, I'm not." Lucy smiled as she sipped her tea. "But that's all right. You have a lot of cousins, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the top five. That's good enough." Before Rose could decide how to respond to that, Lucy said, "So, I heard from a Dedworth that you did well on Thursday."

Rose gave a snort of laughter. "'A Dedworth?' Which one?"

The corners of Lucy's mouth turned up as she started to cut her pancakes into pieces. "Gillian. She just transferred over to my department."

"What did she say?"

Lucy shrugged. "That she heard you did a good job on Thursday. There really wasn't much more to it than that. She bumped into Van in St. Mungo's."

Rose briefly wondered why Gillian Dedworth had been in St. Mungo's in the first place, but she decided she didn't really care enough to ask. "Oh." Lucy continued to look at her expectantly, and Rose shook herself. "Oh. Yeah. I guess. It - it went well." She wasn't quite sure what to say that wouldn't be bragging while still being accurate, so she stuffed a forkful of food in her mouth instead of saying anything.

"Well, what happened?"

One look at Lucy's face told Rose that there was no way Lucy was going to let it go without hearing all the details.

"Oh, fine."

When she'd finished telling the story, Lucy looked more than a little impressed. "Good job. I guess you deserved breakfast, huh?"

"I guess." Rose looked down at her empty plate. "Thanks. It was good."

"No problem. So I take it you spent last night with Scorpius?"

"Yeah. He might be stopping by later."

"What, coming here?" Rose nodded. "Well, that's unusual."

Rose felt her face flush a little. She tended to go to Scorpius's a lot more often than he came to her place, largely because he had his own place and a double bed, and she had neither. He didn't make much more than she did, but unlike her, he didn't have to pay rent - his parents had bought his flat for him as a gift for finishing school with three Os in his N.E.W.T.s.

When he'd pointed out to them that he might not want to stay there indefinitely, they'd shrugged and called it "an investment."

Rose rather wished that her parents had made "an investment" like that for her once she'd finished Hogwarts, but they'd fed her a line about the value of making her own way in the world.

On the other hand, they'd given her great tickets to half a dozen Arrows games, so she really couldn't complain.

She and Lucy hung out for the rest of the morning, and then she retired to her room to read for a little while.

A little while turned into quite a bit longer, because when Scorpius arrived at about 3, she was still absorbed in the book.

"Lucy let me in," he said, closing the door behind him. "How are you?"

She put the book down and stretched. "Good. Rested. How late were you out last night?"

"Don't ask." He sat down on her bed and leaned in to brush his lips against hers. "You know, I'm having a hard time remembering just what I found so obnoxious about James. He really isn't half as bad as I used to think he was."

Rose chose not to remind him that James had spent a good part of their Hogwarts career jinxing Scorpius's hair a variety of colours, and had probably deserved at least some of his antipathy. "I told you so."

He grinned, but it didn't look like his heart was in it. "Look, Rose, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Her heart leapt into her throat. "What did I do?"

"Nothing. I just..." He sighed. "I was thinking last night, and I feel like I kind of guilted you into meeting my grandmother even though you're not really comfortable with it, and I feel bad. I know why you're not comfortable with my dad's parents. I get it. If you don't want to meet her, it's really okay. I'll just make some excuse about tomorrow."

"I thought this was important to you."

He looked up at the ceiling. "Well, yeah. It is. But you not being horribly uncomfortable is also important to me."

This was a lifeline. She could snatch it and not have to deal with meeting Narcissa Malfoy at all, and he wouldn't even hold it against her. She could take it. She wanted to take it.

But she knew that she shouldn't.

"No, it's fine. I'm looking forward to meeting her."

Scorpius looked at her sceptically. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." He raised his eyebrows, and she slumped back against the wall. "Merlin, Scorpius. I thought you_wanted_me to meet her."

"I do, but only if you're ready."

Rose sighed. "You're making it really easy for me to back out." He made a noncommittal noise. "Please don't."

Scorpius gave a quick jerk of his head, and she studied him. There was a faint crease in his forehead, and he was chewing his lower lip. It occurred to her suddenly that he was probably just as nervous about Rose meeting his grandmother as she was.

"Do you not want me to meet her? Did you change your mind?"

"What?" She repeated the question, and he shook his head. "No. I don't think so, anyway. I'm just..." He looked away from her.

"Nervous? Join the club."

He chuckled at that. "Look, Rose, if you want to meet her, I want you to meet her. I'm just feeling... well, nervous."

"Why?"

He made a face and slumped back on her bed. "I don't know. I guess I'm worried that she'll say something stupid without thinking about it, or you'll be... well, yourself."

"Thanks."

He glanced over at her. "Oh, don't," he said. "You _know_how you can be. I'm not saying that I think you'll say something terrible or anything. You can just be a little awkward sometimes, and I'm not entirely sure my grandmother even understands the concept. She's usually gracious, I've seen her be a bit mean, but I've never seen her act awkward."

"Oh." Suddenly, the pit in Rose's stomach was growing bigger.

Scorpius reached out to grab her hand. "I'm sure it'll be fine." He even managed to put some conviction into his voice, which was a lot more than she could have managed at the moment.

She forced a smile onto her face. "Yeah. I'm sure it will be."

* * *

By the time Scorpius arrived the next morning, she was a bundle of nerves. She was putting a great deal of effort into resisting the urge to pretend to be sick - or, better yet, to pretend she'd been called into work on something urgent.

This was going to be difficult, but it was something that she knew she had to do.

Besides, every time she started to consider trying to get out of it, she could remember Scorpius accusing her of cowardice. He hadn't said anything along those lines in years, but before they started going out, he'd made a few remarks along those lines to her just to get under her skin, and she'd never quite gotten over them.

"Just imagine she's a manticore," Rose muttered to herself as she scrutinised her appearance in the mirror. "She could eat you."

This felt oddly comforting, and kept her feeling relatively calm right up until Scorpius pulled the door to the restaurant open and Rose saw his grandmother look up.

She'd seen Narcissa Malfoy in photographs, of course, but even if she hadn't, there would have been no mistaking the resemblance.

"She's just a manticore," she said under her breath.

Scorpius looked at her curiously. "What?"

"Nothing."

As they neared the table, his grandmother smoothed her deep green robes before pushing the chair back and getting to her feet. She had greying blonde hair, and Rose's immediate impression was that she was meeting some sort of minor royalty.

"Hey, Grandma." Scorpius hugged her, and Rose saw a tense sort of smile spread across Narcissa Malfoy's face. She murmured something that Rose couldn't quite make out, and Scorpius stepped back and slid an arm around Rose's waist. "Rose, this is my grandmother, Narcissa Malfoy. Grandma, this is Rose."

Rose stuck out her hand, and Scorpius's grandmother took it gingerly. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy."

When she'd first greeted Scorpius's mother in that manner, she'd been immediately told to call her Astoria. The contrast between the two was stark; where Astoria had immediately tried to put her at ease, Narcissa Malfoy seemed to take the formality for granted. She wasn't cold – she just wasn't really warm, either.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Rose." She sounded genuine, at least, and Rose didn't miss the look she shot Scorpius that seemed to scream, "It's about time."

Rose forced a smile that she hoped looked genuine, too, and turned toward the chairs on their side of the table. Before she could get to the one diagonal from Mrs. Malfoy, however, Scorpius pulled it out.

She had to smother the urge to kill him - she didn't really want to be sitting across from his grandmother. Rather than sink into it, however, he looked at her expectantly, and after a moment, she realised that he had pulled it out for her to sit in.

"I - er - thanks?"

As he sank into the seat next to her, his grandmother asked in a clipped tone, "Scorpius, don't you usually pull Rose's chair out for her?"

"Sure I do."

"Then why does she look so confused?"

He nudged Rose's chair with his foot, and she tried to wipe the confusion off her face. "Oh, no, Mrs. Malfoy, he's a perfect - um - gentleman."

She resisted the urge to add, 'or something.' She doubted Narcissa Malfoy would appreciate that.

Mrs. Malfoy did not seem convinced, but she did drop it, which was good enough. Rose was fairly certain that starting lunch off with an explanation of why she was glad that Scorpius didn't do that sort of thing -_ever_- would not have been ideal.

"Scorpius tells me you work with the Ministry."

"Yes, I - I do." Rose glanced around the room - surely it was high time for a waiter to come by to take their order? She shifted uncomfortably as she looked back at Mrs. Malfoy. "Manticores."

Mrs. Malfoy raised her eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"That's - that's what my department does. We deal with manticores, I mean. And other magical creatures."

Rose was starting to sound like a complete simpleton, and she knew it. She was therefore more than a little grateful when she heard the waiter's voice.

"Would you like to start with something to drink?"

Her relief was short-lived, however, when she realised that she didn't actually know who would be paying for the lunch. Typically, when her parents (or aunts, or uncles, or grandparents) invited her out to eat, they paid for lunch. Scorpius's parents had always waved aside her attempts to pay them for what she'd ordered.

Scorpius's grandmother, however, lived in a different world. Maybe in her world, women never paid for anything. Maybe she thought that she was gracing Rose with her presence. Maybe -

"Rose?" Scorpius nudged her. All three of them were staring expectantly at her.

"Just water. Thanks."

The waiter nodded, gave a pleasant smile, and walked off. Scorpius leaned over to her to murmur, "Don't worry about paying."

She blinked at him, and he grinned. "Come on," he said, still keeping his voice low. "I've been with you for how long?" He reached over and squeezed her hand, and she felt herself relax a little.

"I love you," she said without thinking, and then the sound of someone clearing their throat brought her back to reality in a very unpleasant way.

When she looked over at Scorpius's grandmother, however, Mrs. Malfoy seemed to be trying to suppress a small smile.

"You work with magical creatures?"

"Oh." Rose shook herself. "Yes. I do. I'm just a trainee, though, I've barely been out in the field."

Scorpius snorted. "She was out in the field this week. She saved a woman's life."

His grandmother's eyebrows went up again, and Rose felt her face getting warm. "No, I didn't. The Healers did."

"She'd probably have died without you."

Rose snatched her hand away from him and pushed her hair behind her ears. "Stop it. You're making me sound like some sort of hero."

He rolled his eyes, and to her surprise, his grandmother said, "Well, if you saved someone's life, you should be proud of that."

Rose closed her eyes and counted to ten. "It's not about pride. It's just about doing my job."

Mrs. Malfoy's eyebrows rose again, and Rose slumped back in her seat. This was going to be a long lunch.

* * *

_A/N: Hey, guys. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update this - my life has been really busy lately. It should be settling down in the next few weeks, so regular updates should be starting back up again soon._

_Thanks to mspstar97, LillyMay77, Roseweasley85, darkhk, Bekah28, kariba, 'guest,' fanandfuturewriter, Mlle-Lay, 'yay,' 'Anonymous,' and yellow14 for their reviews, and to everyone else who's been reading, favoriting, and/or setting this story to alerts._

_In response to a comment left in a review about Albus's hair, which I have always seen as red - the epilogue does say that Albus resembles Harry strongly, but I have chosen to interpret that as referring to features rather than hair colour._

_As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, even if they're as simple as "Great chapter!" Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you liked it._


	7. Albus and Bridget

"Well, that wasn't that bad, was it?"

Rose gave a noncommittal grunt. It hadn't been that bad, not really, but that was only because she'd been expecting Narcissa Malfoy to have a go at her at soon as Scorpius got up to go to the loo about her Muggleborn mother and her blood traitor father, or at the very least about her career.

To her credit, she hadn't done that. However, she'd also been a little cold and aloof, and the way she'd taken Rose's hand at the end and said, "Well, I wish you the best of luck" made Rose feel more than a little uncomfortable in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Oh, come on." Scorpius collapsed onto the couch next to her. "It was fine."

Rose shrugged. "I guess."

He slumped back against cushions. "All right, fine. What exactly was so bad about it?"

"I-" She glanced over at him, and he raised his eyebrows. "Merlin, Scorpius. Nothing, I guess. It was just..." She shrugged again. "You know."

"No, I don't." He kicked off his shoes and pulled his knees up to his chest. "What was so bad about it?"

One day, she was going to kill her boyfriend. He usually let things go when they weren't really important, but there were times – like now – that he could be so frustratingly, purposefully dense. "Nothing. It just – I don't know. I felt like she was judging me."

"Well, weren't you judging her?"

Rose blew out her breath. She was starting to feel thoroughly exasperated. "That's different."

"No, it isn't." Unlike her, he seemed to be the picture of perfect calm, which she found quite irritating. "Yeah, she was judging you a bit. What do you expect? She's been hearing about you for years from me, my parents, Noah, Albus... Judgment doesn't always have to be negative, you know. She was just sizing you up."

Rose was momentarily diverted. "Albus has met your grandmother?"

Scorpius snorted. "Yes, Rose. He's been my best friend for eight years, and he stayed with us during summer holidays a few times. He's bumped into her."

"Oh. He – er – never mentioned."

"Well, that's Albus, isn't it? Are you really surprised?"

"I guess not." She sighed. "Look, it really did go fine. I guess. Just give me a little time to process it, okay?"

He looked like he wanted to argue, but after a moment, he just said, "Fair enough."

Somehow, that made her feel even worse.

The next hour passed peacefully enough; neither of them brought up the lunch again. However, after the second chess game in which it was clear that neither of their hearts were really in it, Rose decided to call it quits.

"I'm going to head home, okay?"

He glanced up from the chess pieces he was putting back into their wooden case. "Oh. Yeah, sure."

Rose sighed and held out her hands. After a moment, he took them, and she pulled him up. "I love you," she said in an undertone.

And she did love him. A lot. But for what felt like the first time in a long time, she was actually relieved to be getting away from him.

He squeezed her hands and leaned down to brush his lips against her forehead. "I love you, too."

She forced a smile and backed away.

* * *

When Rose was feeling this out of sorts, there was only one place she wanted to go, and it wasn't home. Hoping that Scorpius wouldn't end up having the same idea – it had happened once or twice before, and been rather awkward – she headed over to the Potters'.

It was only after she knocked that she realized that James probably wouldn't even be there – there was an Arrows match that she also would've liked to go to but, unlike him, couldn't afford – and Albus might well have Bridget over.

Sure enough, when the door swung open, she peeked down the corridor past Albus enough to see Bridget curled up on the red couch that had really seen much better days. Merlin only knew where James had unearthed it from.

"Hey," her cousin said, stepping back to let her inside.

"I – hi. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had company." Rose hovered on the threshold. "I can come back later."

Albus rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, Bridget called out, "Hey, Rose, come in and stay awhile."

She glanced at Albus, who shrugged and waved his hand in the vague direction of the living room.

"Sorry," she said, too quietly for Bridget to hear. "I wasn't thinking. I should have known she'd be over."

Albus let out a soft laugh. "No, I'm glad you're here. She was on at me earlier in the morning about how we never spend time with my friends. Maybe now she'll let up."

Rose glanced at him. His expression was deceptively mild, but they'd reached the doorway and she couldn't very well press him further with Bridget sitting right there.

Instead, she turned to the brunette sitting on the couch. "Hey, Bridget."

Bridget grinned. "Hey, Rose. Long time no see."

Rose collapsed into the more comfortable of the Potters' two armchairs. "It is, isn't it? We used to see each other all the time at school." She reached out her foot and nudged Albus as he stepped past her to take his seat on the couch. "I guess you traded me in for this one, huh?"

Bridget's eyes twinkled. "Poor judgment on my part." Albus snorted loudly, and she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "He's got his qualities, though."

After a moment of hesitation, Albus put his arm around her shoulders. "Note that she doesn't say they're good qualities."

She smiled and leaned against him. "Oh, they're all right."

Rose studied her cousin. He seemed reasonably relaxed, and she could have sworn that he was even holding back a smile. For Albus around Bridget, that was definitely progress. Maybe one day he'd even start calling her his girlfriend rather than just changing the subject whenever she came up.

Maybe.

Rose really had no idea how Bridget managed to be so patient with him.

"So, what's wrong?" Albus asked. She considered dissembling her distress, but he saved her from making the decision by adding, "Really. Don't pretend there isn't something wrong."

Rose slumped back in her chair. "I just met Scorpius's grandmother."

Bridget's eyebrows shot up. "You hadn't before?" Rose shook her head. "But you've been with him for years."

"Yeah. I know."

Albus sighed and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Well, how did it go?"

"Not... not badly, I guess. But I don't think she liked me very much. She was kind of... cold."

Bridget gave her a look of sympathy, but her cousin bit his lip. "Rose, that's just kind of how she is. It might not have been personal."

"That's what he said, too, but how hard is it to be a litle friendly?"

Albus shrugged. "I dunno. It's not like we don't have cousins who can be a little cold when you first meet them, though." Rose opened her mouth to argue, and he fixed her with a look. "Don't even try. I'm not saying I don't love them, but you know it's true."

She closed her mouth.

Bridget twisted around. "Who in your family is like that?"

"Dominique and Roxanne in particular, but Louis can definitely be a little standoffish, too."

"Roxanne isn't cold," Bridget said immediately, with all the fervor of someone who had shared a dormitory with their cousin for seven years at Hogwarts. Bridget hadn't been one of Roxanne and James's group of troublemakers, but they'd always gotten on quite well, and she'd been a frequent addition to their group on Hogsmeade outings and in the evenings in the Common Room.

"To you? No. I'm sure she wasn't. To other people, people who aren't Gryffindors? Yeah, she can, a bit. I love her, but she can. She's been awful to Scorpius, Rose knows she has."

Rose shifted in her seat. She did know. It wasn't that Roxanne had done anything particularly bad – James had probably actually jinxed Scorpius a lot more in their last few years at Hogwarts than Roxanne had – but with James, you always got the sense that it was in good fun. Conversely, Roxanne had never really warmed to the Slytherin, even after Rose had started going out with him. She'd tolerated his presence, but she'd also always given off the impression that she considered herself above him.

Rose loved Roxanne dearly, but her cousin did have her faults.

Dominique, at least, was generally a little chilly to everyone at first, unless they mentioned football. Rose still didn't understand the allure, but Dominique was absolutely obsessed with the Muggle sport.

She realised with a start that Bridget was looking at her. "Oh. I – Al's right, she has been, a bit. I wouldn't say _awful,_ but... she hasn't exactly been friendly, either."

"After three and a half years of his going out with one of her favourite cousins, I think that qualifies as awful."

There was a little too much sense in that for Rose to argue with, so she didn't reply.

"I dunno," Bridget said before Albus could press the point further. "I think that's different, though. Maybe you're right, I never paid attention to how she was with other Houses, but she's just Rose's cousin, not her grandmother."

"It is, but Mrs. Malfoy..." Albus trailed off for a moment. "I think she lives in a different world from the rest of us, in some ways. She's come a long way, Rosie. She was probably just scared of inadvertently saying something offensive."

"It shouldn't be that hard to not say something offensive."

"Well, no, but are we talking about a perfect world or the one we actually live in?"

Rose shifted her gaze away from her cousin and onto the floor. "Maybe. I dunno, maybe I just need time to process it." She glanced up at the clock. "Look, I can go, I'm really fine. I don't want to intrude."

"Oh, you're not intruding." Bridget smiled at her. Rose hadn't seen Bridget in so long that she'd almost forgotten quite how much the girl smiled, which was probably a big part of why Albus liked her so much. "I was just saying to Albus this morning that it would be really nice to spend time with his friends once in awhile." She glanced up at Albus, who grunted something unintelligible. "I'm starting to think he's ashamed of me."

"I'm not – that's not – Bridget, come off it, that's not the problem. I just – " Her shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter as he stumbled over the words, and he stopped. "Yeah. Right. You're funny."

"I know." She flashed a smile up at him, and to Rose's surprise, he leaned down to brush his lips against hers. It was quick, and for almost any other couple their age, it wouldn't have been at all unusual, but this was Albus. From the look on Bridget's face when Albus looked back up, Rose wasn't the only one who was a little taken aback.

"Anyway." Albus's face was a little flushed as Bridget curled back up against him, looking very pleased, but Rose thought that she could see the beginnings of a smile at the corners of his mouth. "What happened? Did you two have a fight or something about it?"

"Not a fight, exactly." Rose began to pick at a loose thread on her sweater. "A fight would have been better, honestly. It was just kind of... we argued, I guess, and then we tried to let it go but it didn't really work. After about an hour of it, I had to get out of there." She glanced involuntarily toward the front door.

"Don't worry. I doubt he'll be coming over." She looked back at her cousin. "He knows Bridget is usually here on Sundays, and..."

"And he knows that Albus is deeply ashamed of me and can't bear the thought of his best friend meeting me and thinking poorly of Al's choices," Bridget finished for him. She was biting her lip to hold back a smile, which Albus clearly failed to notice.

"I'm not – stop saying that. I – I just – well, maybe I just don't want to share you. And – you – " Her grin had gotten progressively wider as he talked, and he finally noticed it. "Oh, shut up. You know, maybe I am ashamed. I don't know that I want my best friend knowing I'm – er – well – you know – " She raised her eyebrows. "Oh, fine, maybe I don't want Scorpius knowing I'm with a girl who won't stop torturing me."

"Oh, are you with me, now?"

He groaned and let his head fall back onto the couch, and Bridget exchanged an amused look with Rose. "I hate you," Albus muttered.

"Oh, I know." Her voice was cheerful. "Anyway, Rose, I think the only time I've actually seen Scorpius since I left school was when I bumped into him at Gringotts a few weeks ago. He never comes here when I'm here. You're probably safe."

Albus sighed and got up. "I'll be right back." He headed down the hall toward the loo, and Rose grinned at Bridget.

"You really do torture him, you know?"

Bridget acknowledged it with a shrug of her shoulders. "He just makes it so easy, sometimes. I don't think he minds, really."

"No, I'm pretty sure he doesn't." Rose cocked her head to the side. "So, he's 'with you,' now? That's progress, isn't it?"

Bridget shrugged again. "You'd think, but we'll see whether he sticks to it or not." She smiled again. "Bit annoying, really, but on the whole, I think he's worth being patient with. He's a good guy."

"Yeah. He is." Rose felt a brief flash of jealousy. She was happy for her cousin, she really was – he'd spent a long time lusting after Bridget without doing anything about it, and to see it finally working out for him was gratifying to see. At the same time, moments like this made her feel a little insecure about her own relationship. Albus and Bridget might have their problems – not least among them that Albus was, for whatever reason, extremely uneasy about making things official and had a tendency to try to keep Bridget and the rest of his social life very far away from each other – but at least it seemed like they were moving, slowly but surely, in the right direction.

Rose was less confident that she and Scorpius were doing the same thing, anymore.

"It'll be okay." Rose shook herself and and looked back at Bridget, who was no longer smiling. "You and Scorpius, I mean. I'm sure you'll work it out. I don't really know him – I never have – but I do know that he's crazy about you. As long as you're still crazy about him... don't worry. You'll work it out."

Rose forced a smile. "I hope so."

When she got home a few hours later, Lucy stuck her head out of her room. "Hey, Rosie. How was lunch?"

Rose shrugged. "It was."

Her cousin didn't press her. Instead, she jerked her head toward the side table next to their couch. "That came for you an hour or two ago."

"Oh. Thanks, Luce."

"No problem. Want to join me for dinner tonight? I'm just making spaghetti, but you won't have to cook."

"Sure." Lucy smiled and disappeared back into her room as Rose picked up the letter. _Ms. Rose Weasley_ was written on the front, in elegant script that she did not recognise, and she slit it open as she slipped into her room, feeling more than a little curious. As soon as she'd opened it, she glanced down at the bottom to identify the sender.

Her stomach dropped when she saw the signature. _Narcissa Malfoy_ was written in the same elegant script.

"Oh, hell." She sank onto her bed before going back to the top.

* * *

_A/N: I know, I'm a terrible person. I just really love cliffhangers. I'll try to get the next chapter up in the next couple weeks, so you're not stuck waiting too long for some answers._

_I hope you liked the glimpse of Albus and Bridget - they're a fun couple to write, and you'll certainly be seeing more of them in the future._

_As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. I would really appreciate it if you took the time to leave me a review, even if it's just "great chapter" or "Beeezie, why do you do this to us?!" :P _


	8. The Letter

Rose read through the letter, but when she reached Narcissa Malfoy's signature, she found that she had neither retained nor properly processed any of it.

She groaned and fell backward onto her bed. "I hate my life," she muttered, tossing the letter aside. "I hate my life."

She hadn't often had occasion to wish she hadn't made the decision in her fifth year to start going out with a pureblood from a family of questionable origins, but she was beginning to regret it now. Her happy little bubble had been popped by the introduction of Narcissa Malfoy and her cool stares and her composure, and she did not appreciate it.

She picked up the letter again.

_Miss Weasley,_

Rose immediately threw it aside again. The bile was beginning to rise in her throat. This would be it. Narcissa Malfoy would insult her, or tell her to stay away from Scorpius, or just be so perfectly polite that it would be abundantly clear that she really hated Rose. And once that happened, her relationship with Scorpius would be poisoned. They'd never be able to forget this. She'd be unwilling to give his family another chance and he would end it. They would be over. She -

She couldn't deal with this right now.

She brushed the letter onto the floor, threw a pillow on top of it for good measure, and stared up at the ceiling trying to think about anything but what she was sure was her impending break up.

She didn't know how long it was until there was a knock at her door. After a moment, Lucy stuck her head in. "Rosie, I'm going to start – Rose, what's wrong?"

Rose grunted and rolled over to face the wall. Part of her wanted Lucy to just go away and leave her to her misery. Another part – a bigger part – wanted Lucy to comfort her, but she certainly wasn't going to ask.

She felt Lucy sink onto her bed. "Rosie, what happened?"

"It was from his grandmother." Rose pulled her knees up to her chest. She wondered whether it was possible to convince your heart to beat slower. "The letter, I mean."

"I thought it might be. What did it say?"

Rose sniffled. She thought she might be about to cry, but given how awful she was feeling already, she felt very sure that she ought to avoid crying if at all possible. Crying had a tendency to make her too nauseous to eat, and since she'd been too nervous to do more than pick at her lunch, she was already hungry. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

She shook her head. "I didn't read it." She waved her hand in the vague direction of the letter. "It's down there."

Her cousin reached over her to retrieve it. "Would you like me to read it first?"

Rose nodded, and she heard Lucy unfold the parchment. Her heart was hammering, and she was beginning to feel quite ill despite her successful attempts to hold back tears.

"Rosie, I think you should read this."

"No."

Lucy sighed. "Why not?"

"Because she hates me and she probably told me to stay away from Scorpius and I don't wa – want to stay away from Sc – Scorpius, and once I read it everything is going to fall apart and – "

"Rose."

She hiccuped and glanced up at her cousin. Lucy was holding out the letter with a look of long-suffering patience across her face. "What?"

"Read the letter." Rose started to shake her head, but the look in Lucy's eyes made her reconsider, and she took the letter without further complaint. She struggled into a sitting position and steeled herself before looking down at the elegant, sloping script.

_Ms. Weasley,_

_I had a lovely time at lunch. It was very nice to finally meet you. I hope we can meet again soon._

_Thank you for coming._

_Narcissa Malfoy_

Rose blinked down at it a few times after she'd finished it, and then turned the piece of parchment over, half-expecting to see something written on the other side. It was blank.

"That's it?"

"Mm."

She glanced up at Lucy, who looked like she was struggling to contain her amusement. "Think you might have overreacted a bit?"

"I – why on earth would she send this? What was the point? She scared me half to death!"

Lucy shrugged. "She's old wizarding blood, she was probably raised to have good manners. Yes, I know it's a difficult concept for you to understand." Rose reached out to shove her lightly, and Lucy got to her feet. "Come on. I'm starting dinner."

"I'll be there in a second." Rose let herself fall backward onto the bed again, buried her face in a pillow, and screamed. Sometimes, she really, really hated her boyfriend's family. 'Manners' were no excuse to give a person a heart attack.

* * *

Rose was just glad that she was back at work the next day. It saved her from having to think about whether she ought to write Narcissa Malfoy back and whether she had anything to apologise to Scorpius for. She had come to see the D.C.B. as a safe little bubble – when she was there, she didn't have to worry about people judging her or liking her boyfriend too much or not liking him at all. She could just be herself and say what she pleased, rather than worry about all the ramifications.

"Morning," Victoire said as soon as she walked in.

"Morning," she replied, hanging up her coat and collapsing into her chair. "How was your weekend?"

Victoire grinned. "Not bad. You know how these romantic weekends go."

Rose didn't, but she smiled anyway.

"But how about you?" Victoire asked as Dedworth appeared in the doorway of their little cubicle. "Weren't you meeting Scorpius's grandmother this weekend?"

Rose grimaced. "Oh. That. Yeah, I did. She was..." She had no idea what to say, so she trailed off. Victoire gave her a sympathetic look.

"You met Narcissa Malfoy?" Dedworth asked as he sat down. Rose nodded. "Did you get a 'thank you' note?" Her surprise must have been apparent on her face, because he let out a loud snort. "That's what she does. Jo's got a stack of them from every one of her cousin's family birthday parties that she went to when he was a kid."

A small bit of the tension she'd been feeling lifted from her shoulders. "Yeah, I did. She does that to everyone?"

"I don't know about everyone, but she did it for Jo a lot."

Victoire reached over and patted her arm. "See? It must have gone better than you thought."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw Dedworth wince. "What?" She was starting to feel a little more comfortable talking to him about non-work related things.

"Well, a note doesn't necessarily mean she likes you," Dedworth said. "I mean, maybe she does, but she really doesn't like Johanna."

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Oh, Rose, don't listen to him. Jo's always exaggerating and saying people hate her when they don't."

"Well, yeah, but this time she's serious. Narcissa Malfoy really doesn't like her."

"Why not?"

Dedworth shrugged. "I don't know. Probably a combination of Johanna's bad manners and her lack of proper Slytherin concepts of self-preservation. Maybe she thought Jo was be a bad role model for her grandson or something."

Objectively, what he was saying probably should have made Rose feel worse, but it was actually having the opposite effect. She wasn't necessarily wrong; Mrs. Malfoy really might not like her. She didn't have anything to apologise for.

Victoire was watching her closely, and Rose smiled. "Good to know. So what are we doing today? How'd the woman from Hogsmeade make out?"

"Onto business, eh?" Dedworth's eyes twinkled, and Rose felt her stomach lurch. "I'm starting to see the family resemblance, Vic. I think we'll all get on just fine." He turned back to Rose, who forced herself to maintain both her attention and her composure. "She's still being monitored, but she should be okay."

Rose heard footsteps behind her, and Dedworth and Victoire both peered around her. "Morning," Victoire called out.

"Morning," Lavender Brown's cheerful voice responded. The door to her office opened and shut.

After a few heartbeats, Dedworth got to his feet. "I have to talk to her about something. I'll be right back."

"Talk?" Victoire asked as he stepped past Rose. "Is that what they're calling it these days?"

He shot her a glare. "Yeah, that's it, V. Because I'm just that unprofessional."

She did not look remotely abashed. "Isn't it unprofessional to be fraternising in the first place?"

"You know, I am your boss." She shrugged, and he threw one of the gloves sitting on the ledge next to the doorway at her. "Get to work. Or something."

"Yes, fearless leader." He rolled his eyes at her, but stepped across the hall without further retort.

Rose glanced over at her cousin, who had a broad grin on her face. "Doesn't he – well, mind when you do that?"

Victoire shrugged again. "Maybe a little, but not really. It's all in good fun. He's been on good behavior since you joined us, he usually hits back with something about Teddy. He must be waiting until you actually respect him enough to listen to him to start being himself again."

"Oh. Sorry?"

"Nah, don't be. It's fun to poke fun at him when he can't retaliate." Victoire cocked her head to the side as she studied Rose. "So, what do you think of Van so far?"

Rose shifted uncomfortably in her seat. In all honesty, she wasn't sure what she thought of Dedworth so far; whatever Victoire said about good behavior, he was certainly a little crass sometimes, and she was still confused about what exactly his relationship with Lavender was, and it seemed to be coming up often enough that her curiosity was just getting worse and worse.

She also wasn't really sure how to interpret the way her stomach had turned over just a few minutes earlier, though she suspected that understanding it wouldn't actually help matters.

Victoire snorted. "Don't worry. That's the way a lot of people react to him." Rose shook herself and refocused on her cousin, who had a small smile on her lips. Rose wasn't sure whether Victoire was actually reading all of her discomfort or just the confusion; she hoped it was the latter.

"Did you?"

Victoire's smile faded a little as she thought about it. "No, I guess not," she said after a moment. "But I knew him before I started here, which probably helped."

"How?"

"His brother, Gallagher, was one of my friends at Hogwarts. Not that I ever see him anymore, but that was how I first met Van. I think I was about thirteen when I met him, and I thought that his job sounded like the coolest thing ever. I was a bit of a pain after that."

"Yeah, you were," Dedworth agreed from the doorway. "But then, you're still a pain, so it was good practice." She threw the glove back at him, and he threw his head back and laughed. Thankfully, this time Rose's stomach did not react.

"So what are we doing today?" she asked as he sat down.

"Well, Seamus has taken over the Erklings – which is what I was asking Lavender about," he said pointedly to Victoire, who grinned back at him. "They want us to investigate some suspicious injuries and disappearances up by Ullswater. They think it might be a kelpie."

Victoire slumped back in her seat. "Merlin, again?"

He grimaced. "Yeah, I know." He looked over at Rose, who was feeling very confused by her cousin's reaction. "We've had a lot of trouble with magical creatures up there, especially kelpies. It feels like we're cleaning it out every couple years, but they just keep coming back. It's a huge pain, since now it's happened enough that we have to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb to prove to the Ministry that there aren't any eggs."

"Oh."

He sighed. "Well, we'd best get to work." He gave his wand a flick, and a well-worn map extracted itself from one of the bookcases and settled on the wall. "Here are where the disappearances have been..."

Rose had been planning to stop by Scorpius's on her way home. It wasn't so much that she wanted to see him as that she felt like she should, even though she had no idea what to say to him or whether she should be apologising for anything. Thankfully, James saved her from having to make the decision by inviting her back to his flat for dinner, which she gratefully accepted.

"Al will be home a bit later," he said as they entered the flat. "He had to stay late today for a progress report or something. If you're not hungry, I thought I'd wait to make food until he gets back."

"I don't mind." Rose shed her coat, scarf, and gloves, and then collapsed onto the couch.

"So." James sat down next to her. "How'd yesterday go?"

She had momentarily forgotten that James hadn't been around to hear any of the details about how the lunch had gone. "Well, it went." He raised his eyebrows, and she sighed. "Hell, James, what do you want me to say? I don't know. I don't think she liked me very much, but she sent me a note thanking me for coming."

"Weird."

"I know! But apparently a note might not mean that she likes me, anyway, and..." She groaned. "It's just kind of a nightmare. And things with Scorpius were a bit weird after, and I haven't talked to him since I calmed down a bit because I don't know what to say." She hesitated – she wasn't sure she really wanted to say it out loud, but if she couldn't confide in James, who could she confide in. "And I think I might think that Dedworth is – um – "

She couldn't finish, but James seemed to understand the sentiment, and responded to this monologue in the way that only James could: he reached over to the table sitting next to his end of the couch, rummaged through the drawer for a moment, and then tossed her a few chocolate frogs. She giggled despite herself, and he grinned back as he unwrapped one of his own.

"Better?" he asked once she'd finished one. She nodded, and he gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You'll be fine, Rosie. Don't worry about it."

"But – "

"Look, if Scorpius was expecting everything to go perfectly and for there to be no awkwardness after this lunch at all, he's an idiot. I'm pretty sure he's not an idiot, so I'm sure he'll be fine next time you talk to him, and you can sort this whole thing out."

Rose felt a warmth begin to spread through her which had nothing to do with chocolate. "You think?"

James grinned. "Yeah, I do, and you know I'm never wrong. And as far as Van goes... Rosie, I'm not sure if it's escaped your attention, but he's a really good-looking guy." Rose felt her face flush a little, but either James didn't notice or tactfully chose not to mention it. "So you noticed it. Congratulations, it's only taken you four months. Do you want to kiss him?"

"No!"

"Well, then. Calm down. I bet most people have that reaction to Van at some point."

"Really?" It had been hard to get out, but at this point she was very happy she'd managed it; James was making her feel significantly better.

"Really." He reached over and ruffled her hair. "You get too worked up over things. Calm down."

"It's just hard. Especially with everything with Scorpius. I didn't want to see him yesterday, you know, after the lunch. I was happy to leave."

"And that worries you?" She nodded, and James looked up at the ceiling. "Rose. You spent half the weekend with him, and then braved an awkward lunch with his grandmother. Are you really surprised that you needed a little distance?"

"I... I guess not."

"Right, then." James put his hands on his shoulders and shook her gently. "So calm the hell down."

A smile began to creep across her face. "I'll try." She hugged him. "Thanks. You're the best cousin ever."

"I'm telling Albus." She smacked his head lightly. "Hey!"

* * *

_A/N: So I didn't make you guys wait forever to find out what was in the letter, and I didn't leave you with a terrible cliffhanger at the end of this chapter. Does that earn me a little forgiveness? :P_

_Thanks so much to BW-Photography, LillyMay77, Lyssann, Alice xx, as1hey, Pebbles827, OCD Manga Geek, yellow 14, kaitie, mspstar97, and the two Guests for their lovely reviews on the last chapter._

_If you have the chance and feel so inclined, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this chapter as well. I hope you enjoyed it!_

Beeezie


	9. Falling Into Bad Habits

Rose had half-expected there to be a letter from Scorpius waiting for her when she returned to her flat after dinner with James. To her surprise, there was nothing on the side table where she and Lucy always put letters that came while the other was out. Seeing that her cousin's door was closed, however, Rose checked the small box that hung outside their window. It was also empty.

She wasn't sure how to interpret this lack of communication. Sometimes when they'd had a fight, Scorpius backed off just to give her a little space, but this hadn't really been a fight, and she'd expected him to want to make sure that things were okay.

As the annoyance built, Rose knew that she was being a little unfair. She knew herself well enough to admit that if she _had_ come home and found a letter from him, she probably would have ignored it for at least a day.

However, knowing that she was being a little unfair did not make her feel inclined to be less unfair. It just annoyed her, because if there was one thing Rose really disliked, it was logic getting in the way of her feelings.

This irritation just sunk her further into a bad mood, and despite the relatively early hour, she decided that it was probably time for her to go to sleep. Otherwise, she was just going to stew, and that was never a productive use of time.

And anyway, Victoire had hinted that day that they might be going back into the field in the next couple days, and if that happened, Rose needed to be well-rested. It could be the difference between dying and not dying.

Or at least being sent to St. Mungo's and not being sent to St. Mungo's, and if she was hurt badly enough to get sent to St. Mungo's, she'd probably be in enough pain that she would forget that she was annoyed at Scorpius. He would definitely find out she was there and come see her, and she would be happy to see him, and by the time she remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him it would be too late and they would have already made up.

Which meant that she definitely needed to get to sleep.

As it transpired, she needn't have bothered. As soon as she got to work the next day, Van set her to work looking through old incident reports of reported acromantula encounters in Scotland and immediately disappeared into the heads' office for several hours. When he reappeared, it was only to collect Victoire – who had the infinitely more exciting task of looking up obscure spells that could help deal with magical creatures, though both she and Van refused to say which – to the meeting he was apparently having inside.

When they hadn't come out by one o'clock, Rose decided to put her work aside for a little while to eat lunch.

They reemerged shortly after she'd finished and gotten back to work. She showed Van the log she'd made of locations, victims, and the results of the investigation. He'd reviewed it quickly, his mind clearly elsewhere, and then told her to start in on the map when she was finished.

Rose could not help but feel like this was busy work, but she didn't have time to complain to Victoire before Van whisked her away again.

When she left work, she was feeling thoroughly disheartened. The sentiment only deepened when she returned home and found that, once again, there was no note from Scorpius.

"Oh, Rosie," Lucy said when Rose started to complain over dinner. "I know it's awful. Some days are just like that. I'm sure tomorrow will be better, though."

Lucy was wrong. The next day was no better. In fact, in many ways it was worse; she finished the acromantula assignment early in the day, but rather than give her something interesting to do – or, for that matter, bother to praise her work at all, which was very neat – Van had given her a large stack of papers that detailed every injury suffered in the last five years by D.C.B. members on the job and told her to comb through them and organize them by location, attacker, and injury.

He and Victoire then disappeared again for a good part of the day.

By Friday, Rose was livid. She had joined the D.C.B. to do something with her life, not to make stupid logs that Van had obviously given her just to keep her busy. When he got back from lunch and sat down in his chair for the first time in several days, she had to stop herself from making a sarcastic comment. Van might be relatively easygoing, but he was also her boss, and she didn't want to get herself into hot water with him.

"How's that map coming?" he asked after a few minutes. When she glanced over at him, she saw that his feet were up on his desk and he was leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head.

"Fine."

He raised his eyebrows at her tone, but didn't comment on it. "Are you almost done with it?"

"Yes."

He let his feet drop down from the desk and leaned forward. "Rose, is there a problem?"

She bit her lip. "No."

"Nobody likes a martyr. Spit it out."

She looked up. "I'm tired of sitting at this stupid desk doing busywork that doesn't matter while you and Vic hole up in secret meetings all day, and I'm pissed off that neither of you will tell me what I did wrong."

There was a long pause before he spoke. "You think that this has all been a punishment?" She shrugged. "Rose, I hate to break it to you, but not everything is about you. If you can't take a little boredom mixed in with all the danger without assuming that it's all about you, you shouldn't be here."

She jerked back. His voice had been much harsher than she'd ever heard it before, and it hurt more than she'd expected it to. She bit back a retort and looked back at the map.

The rest of the afternoon was uncharacteristically tense, and it was a relief when Victoire finally reappeared. If she could tell that there was tension between the two of them, she didn't mention it. Instead, she kept up a cheerful chatter about some new discoveries made by the Dragon Research Division that would probably be helpful in D.C.B. fieldwork, and Rose gradually began to relax a little. When the clock hit five, she dumped the finished map on Van's desk and was gone before he could react.

She immediately made for the Golden Snitch, a bar just off Diagon Alley that was largely frequented by people who worked with magical creatures or battled dark wizards, though a not-insignificant number of Cursebreakers tended to stop in for a drink or two as well. She and James had planned to meet Albus there after work.

When she got there, James had not yet arrived. To her surprise, though, Albus had – apparently, the Aurors hadn't kept him late, for once.

He was not alone.

She steeled herself as she walked over. She was still a little annoyed at her boyfriend, but after such an exhausting and frustrating week, she found that she missed him more than she was angry with him. That, however, was no guarantee that he was not still angry with her.

She slipped into the seat next to Albus rather than the one next to Scorpius and gave them both a tentative smile. Her cousin grinned back and immediately got up to head to the bar, leaving Rose alone with Scorpius.

"Hi."

He smiled back. "Hey. How was your week?"

"Terrible." She glanced over at Albus, who was chatting with somebody standing at the bar. "Um-"

"Al invited me. He said that we needed to stop being stubborn." Rose snorted, but kept her eyes on the table. He reached across it and took one of her hands in his. "Rose, look at me. Are we okay?"

"I don't know, are we?"

"I would like us to be."

"Then we're okay." Rose resisted the urge to fiddle with her hair with difficulty. Somehow, she thought that looking either distracted or bored would not send the message she wanted to send.

"Good." Scorpius did not show the same restraint; when she smiled, he reached up to play with the red curl that kept escaping out from behind her ear, no matter how many times she smoothed it back.

"I love you," she breathed.

He leaned in to kiss her. "Good." When he pulled away, he patted the seat next to him. "Come over here, so I can hold your hand under the table and not make your cousins feel awkward."

She slid out of the booth and in next to him instead. "They wouldn't, you know."

He shrugged and intertwined his fingers with hers as Albus came back with their drinks.

Rose was just finishing her second when Van walked in with Johanna Greengrass. He glanced around, saw them, and nudged Johanna. When she saw her cousin, she smiled widely and bounded over.

"Scorpie!" she said with indecent cheer, sliding in next to him and throwing her arm around his shoulders. "How _are_ you?"

Scorpius looked like he was regretting trading places with Rose when he got up to use the restroom, which had left her against the wall and him exposed to his cousin's distinct sense of humour.

"Fine."

Johanna sighed deeply. "You don't sound very happy to see me, you know." He made a face at her, and she grinned. "I'll treat you to a drink, will you forgive me then?"

"I forgive you now, but since you're offering..."

She ruffled his hair and slid out again to head over to the bar.

Van leaned against the booth and shook his head. "I don't know how she has so much energy at the end of the week. I'm exhausted."

"So am I," Rose said without thinking.

He gave her a rueful smile. "I'm sure. I'm sorry I was a bit short with you earlier. It's just been one of those weeks, and I already know that I'm not going to have much of a weekend."

"What's going on?"

He sighed. "It's a long, boring story that has to with new Ministry regulations about documenting what they're calling 'incidents' and what the rest of us call 'attacks.' They keep calling me and Vic in because we have so many family members in other similar departments that they seem to think we have some kind of special insight."

"Do you?"

He shrugged. "Probably, but I really wish I didn't. Sorry about your drawing the short straw because of it and having to wade through the reports. I know it's been boring." She made a face, and he laughed. "Cheer up. We'll be doing more interesting things soon enough."

"Good." She studied his face. She hadn't noticed it in the office, probably because she'd been so irritated, but he had dark circles under his eyes, and despite his smile, his body language as a whole communicated real exhaustion. "Sorry I snapped at you."

"It happens." Johanna returned and deposited a glass in front of Scorpius. Van nudged her. "Come on, Jo. Let's leave the kids to their own devices and find a table."

Friday night drinks rapidly became a tradition. In a few years, she and James would no longer be able to nurse several drinks over the course of four or five hours as they gossiped, returning home in the early morning hours. Older, more experienced D.C.B. members and Aurors were called upon to work on weekends fairly regularly, especially if there was a pressing case at hand: as her uncle said, neither dark creatures nor dark wizards tended to take the weekends off, so neither could they. The best they'd probably be able to do then was a drink or two after work and then head straight to bed.

Happily, however, that was something that new recruits usually didn't have to do. First and second year D.C.B. members were rarely called upon to work weekends, and Bridget could count the number of times she'd had to work on a Saturday or Sunday in the year and a half she'd spent in the Auror training programme on one hand.

According to Victoire, this was to ease newcomers into the stressful routine that went hand-in-hand with working for such high-pressure divisions. According to Van, it was to let the grueling, back-breaking hours sneak up on people in hopes that they wouldn't realise that life didn't actually have to be this difficult.

Privately, Rose thought that they both probably had a point.

Occasionally, Victoire would accompany them. Rose and James were always very happy when she did, both because they liked spending time with their cousin (and Teddy, who often joined her) and because she usually treated them to at least one round.

This was much appreciated, because both Rose and James were discovering that a disadvantage to living on their own meant having to pay for things, especially since their parents seemed to think that struggling with money built character. Rose's father was especially difficult about it: she'd become very tired of monologues about how when _he_ was young _his_ family could barely afford to buy new books and certainly couldn't afford new robes and she was very lucky that when she was a child that hadn't been a problem.

Implicit was the suggestion that she was no longer a child, and it was time to grow up.

Her mother was a bit more sympathetic, but she tended to point out that Rose really did make enough to reasonably support herself if she was thrifty about it. When her mother began to wonder about where the money was going, Rose knew it was time to shut up. She didn't especially feel like sharing her tradition of Friday night drinks _or_ her propensity for buying ill-advised tickets to Quidditch games with either of her parents.

To her surprise, Bridget had begun to join them as often as not. This plainly made her happy, and Albus was gradually losing the tension around his shoulders that he'd often had in the early months of their relationship when they were around any of his family. He still hadn't mentioned it to his parents (though Rose suspected his father had guessed – Albus was not a very good liar), but for Albus, this was definite progress.

Between Bridget and Scorpius – who also frequently met them there – Rose had half expected James to start to feel lonely and left out. However, spending time as a fifth wheel seemed to have the opposite effect. James seemed positively cheerful about being unattached, and given all the flirting he'd been doing with the various bartenders, Rose supposed that she shouldn't have been so surprised.

Despite the demanding schedule that Van in particular worked – as one of the most senior members of the division as well as the head of a squad, he seemed to spend more time in the office than at home – he was also at the Leaky Cauldron as often as not on Friday nights. Rose watched to see if he ever came in with Lavender, but it never seemed to happen; instead, he was usually with one of his many siblings or with the group of friends that he and Victoire shared.

Rose could not help noticing that he seemed significantly less scarred than anyone else. When she'd mentioned that to Victoire – it seemed odd, since he'd been in the field the longest of any of them – Victoire had laughed and suggested that perhaps Van was just more careful, because he was also the most vain among his family and friends. Van had come in during the exchange and hadn't bothered to deny it, which made Rose think that it might actually be true.

She rarely went out on Saturday nights, but her cousin Roxanne – who had a rare week off from a very busy Quidditch schedule – had owled her and suggested that they meet up at the Leaky Cauldron to catch up. Rose, who missed Roxanne very much, was happy to agree, even if her monetary situation was getting to be a bit critical.

Rose got to the Leaky Cauldron first. It was predictably crowded – one nice thing about the Golden Snitch was that it typically _wasn't_ packed to the rafters, even on weekends – but she thought she saw a free table on the far wall. She made her way across the room, but before she could sit down, she heard her boyfriend's voice drifting around the corner from the nook in the wall that held several tables.

"All right. Don't tell her I said this, but I _am_ starting to feel a little jealous."

Rose flattened herself against the wall so they couldn't see her. After a moment, it occurred to her to try and look natural, so she crossed her arms and glanced toward the door as if she were waiting for someone.

Which, in all fairness, she was.

A few women rushed by her to claim the table she had thoroughly forgotten about.

"Of Dedworth? What happened to 'He's about twenty years older than us'?" she heard Albus ask.

There was a long silence. "I don't know. Maybe she doesn't care."

Rose was expecting her cousin to have some consoling words, but evidently, that was not what he had in mind. "Jealousy doesn't suit you."

She didn't have to see Scorpius's face to know that he was starting to turn red. "Thanks for the support."

"No problem."

"If I'd wanted sarcasm, I could have gone to my cousin."

"You could have."

After a moment, she heard a groan and a thud indicating that her boyfriend had let his head fall onto the table. "I know I'm overreacting. It just – did you see the way she got all red when he came over last night?"

Rose winced. James had definitely made her feel much better about her awkward feelings about her immediate supervisor when she'd talked to him about it several weeks before, especially when he'd pointed out that there was a significant difference between a slight attraction and actually wanting to sleep with a person. Rose was comforted by that; her stomach might turn over a bit when Van smiled at her, but she definitely did not want to have sex with him.

Still, when she interacted with him outside of work, she did tend to get a bit flustered. She thought she'd hid it well the night before, when he'd actually sat down and had a couple drinks with them. Apparently, she hadn't.

"You're right," Albus said. "You are overreacting."

As much as Rose appreciated the support, she was a little taken aback. Albus was usually much more sympathetic than this.

Scorpius cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, Albus sighed. "Look, she's really getting into her work. I know it makes you uncomfortable, but field work is something that she enjoys doing. Van is a huge part of that. If that makes you uncomfortable, too, I don't know what to tell you. She's not going to cheat on you, especially not with a guy who's about twenty years older than her and involved with one of the heads of the division."

"Yeah. I guess." Scorpius sighed. "I don't know. Lately I just feel like she's getting tired of me and pulling away."

There was a long pause. "You never told me that."

He'd never told her that, either.

"I know. It just didn't seem worth talking about, because I assumed I was just being paranoid. Last night, though..."

"What, you think she's going to cheat on you with her boss?"

"No." He paused. "I don't know. I guess not."

Rose was beginning to go from stunned to annoyed. Who was he to have all these feelings and refuse to talk to her about them? And who was he to assume that she was going to cheat on him? She wasn't a cheater.

"Who are you eavesdropping on?" said a voice in her ear.

Rose jumped. When she turned toward the newcomer, her cousin Roxanne was grinning. "Keep your voice down," she hissed.

Roxanne took her wrist and steered her away from her hiding place. "Who?" she repeated.

"Scorpius and Albus."

Roxanne leaned over to look into the corner. "Huh. Anything interesting?"

"Apparently, Scorpius thinks I might cheat on him with my boss."

Her cousin considered this for a minute. "Well, if you're going to cheat, Dedworth's a good choice. I'd have sex with him in a heartbeat."

"I'm not going to."

"Oh." Roxanne sighed dramatically. "Well, Rosie, this is what you get for dating a Slytherin. Come on. Let's find somewhere to drink that doesn't involve your boyfriend gossiped about your impending bad decisions."

Rose followed her out the door, still feeling more than a little annoyed. She didn't see Roxanne enough to spend the time stewing, though, so she would try to table those feelings – for now, at least.

* * *

_A/N: Hey, guys. I'm really sorry about the long hiatus - my semester got crazy and I had to take on more hours at work, which meant that I didn't really have time to work on any of my stories, no matter how much I wanted to._

Now that it's summer, though, I should have more time, and I'm hoping to start updating this regularly (I'm aiming for every weekend) again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for reading!


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